The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) announced on Wednesday that basic items including maize flour, sugar, packeted milk, and wheat flour recorded a drop in retail prices as inflation for September reduced from 4.4 per cent to 3.6 per cent year-on-year.
According to KNBS, Sugar dropped by 29.9 percent year-on-year while maize grain dropped by 19.8 percent, Wheat flour (10.9 percent), Fresh packeted cow milk (500ml) (0.8 percent), Kerosene/ paraffin ( 1 litre) (21.8 percent), Petrol (10.7 percent), Diesel (14.6 percent), and Electricity (50 kilowatts) (2.7 percent) for the same period.
On the other hand, the Cooking gas and the cost of electricity went down. According to KNBS, the cost of a 13kg cooking gas cylinder dropped by 0.07 per cent while electricity (50 kilowatts) dropped by 0.8 per cent in the past month. Similarly, sugar dropped by 2.8 per cent, wheat reduced by 2.1 per cent while Fresh Packeted Cow Milk dropped by 0.6 per cent.
Despite the drop in inflation, some basic items including vegetables, and other food items went up. Among them are, cabbages, potatoes, oranges, beef, fish onion, charcoal, bus fare, beans, petrol and kerosene.
Vegetables at a market place. AFA is tasked with regulating the importation and exportation of the crops.
Photo
AFA
The month of September 2024 recorded a monthly inflation rate of 0.2 per cent while the drop in the annual inflation was mainly due to an increase in prices of commodities under the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions.
For instance, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increased by 5.1 per cent in the last 12 months (September 2023- September 2024).
On the other hand, the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other Fuels Index increased by 2.6 per cent in the last 12 months while the transport Index increased by 0.5 per cent in the same period.
During the same period, petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged. The low and stable exchange rate has provided support in casing the inflationary pressures that have been witnessed in the past one year.
Year-on-year (YoY) inflation for Kenya Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September 2024 was at 3.6 per cent. One year earlier, in September 2023, the CPI index was at 6.8 per cent indicating a huge decline.
Year-on-year inflation is used mainly for economic decision-making as the current situation is compared to the previous year’s situation, in the same period.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a key macroeconomic indicator used to monitor price movements and how they affect policy decisions.
It is defined as a measure of the weighted aggregate change in retail prices paid by consumers for a given basket of goods and services.
The inflation rate is a percentage change of the CPI between two periods. The collection of retail prices for the compilation of the CPI is usually conducted during the second and third weeks of every month.
Prices of different commodities are collected from selected retail outlets located in 50 data collection zones.
Out of the 50 data collection zones, 14 are located in Nairobi City County while 36 are located in other urban areas. Nairobi zones cover outlets in lower-income, middle-income and upper-income areas.
Items that were recovered during an EPRA raid in Machakos County on June 19, 2024.
Photo
EPRA
