Kenya’s annual rate of increase in prices of commodities slowed for the first time this year to 9.5 percent in November, a tiny 0.1 percent dip compared with 9.6 percent in September.

The drop is an optimistic pointer that consumer prices are plateauing amid various courses of action by the government and its agencies to check high inflation.

The latest economic data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed that food and non-alcoholic beverages—which account for 32.9 percent of the weights of the 13 broad categories—jumped by 15.4 percent in the 12 months ending November 2022.

Relative to last month, the prices of general groceries such as cabbages, potatoes and sukumawiki increased by 8.4, 6.9 and 3.0 percent respectively, despite the onset of the short rains season in several parts of the country.

“During the same period, prices of cooking oil (salad), tomatoes and fortified maize flour dropped by 6.0, 2.2, and 1.0 percent, respectively,” KNBS said.

In the month under focus, the transport index slightly decreased by 0.1 per cent, although the category posted an 11.7 percent year-on-year uptick compared with November 2021 on account of steady rise in global fuel prices in the last one year

The progress realised in the pursuit to calm turbulent consumer prices comes on the heels of concerted measures instituted by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which lifted the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent towards the end of November.

The government is running a fertiliser subsidy program to prop up food production in the long haul aiming to resolve food supply shortages which have significantly fueled inflation.

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