October inflation down to 5.53% as food, electricity prices drop

After a year high inflation rate of 5.7% in the month of September, the cost of living index in Kenya fell to 5.53% on account of a drop of food and electricity prices.

Despite the drop, the inflation rate marks a second consecutive month in which the country’s cost of living index is above the 5% mark.

The inflation rate is also the third highest over a 12-month period from October 2017.

Numbers released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on October 31 show that the food and non-alcoholic beverages index for the period fell by 1.76% as against the previous month.

October registered lower prices of maize and maize products compared to previous month. The price of a 2kg packet of sifted maize flour dropped by 14.4% from an average of Ksh97.88 in September to Ksh83.83 in October. During the same period, prices of various vegetables were lower than in September.

The transport index also saw a 0.86% slump from September with KNBS attributing this to a drop in petrol prices. The average price of petrol in October was Ksh116.48 falling from the average Ksh117.54 experienced last month. With this however, the average matatu fares were higher in October than in September.

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Whereas the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index increased by 0.2%, the cost of electricity was lower in October than it was in September. The index bump was due to increase in house rents, KNBS said.

Cell phone airtime was also up in October, especially as the month saw the three major telcos announced increments to voice calls, SMS and data bundle prices in light of the new tax measures effected by the Finance Act 2018.

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