January Food Inflation Stood at 1.62% – KNBS

Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks’ Index increased by 0.78 percent between the month of December 2018 and January 2019 with the year on year food inflation standing at 1.62 percent.

The overall year on year inflation in January 2019 stood at 4.70 percent.

This is according to the latest monthly Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and rates of Inflation from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics for the month of January 2019 which revealed that the cost of several foodstuffs in January 2019 was much lower compared to the same period of the previous year.

According to the data, maize grain recorded a drop of 40.6 percent from 59.90 shillings per kilogram in January 2018 to 35.25 shillings in January 2019.

Similarly, the prices of sifted maize flour, sugar and beans declined by 29.04, 7.69 and 6.08 percent, respectively.

These lower prices contributed to the overall low inflation in January 2019.

Over the same period, the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index, increased by 0.20 percent as a result of higher cost of house rents and cooking fuels. Partly contributing to this, were prices of domestic electricity consumption for 50 Kwh as well as for 200 KWh which increased by 1.68 and 1.15 percent, respectively, attributed to increases in foreign and inflation adjustment charges.

The Transport Index decreased by 1.40 percent, mainly due to decreases in pump prices of petrol and diesel.

The table below gives a summary of the National Average Retail Prices of Selected Commodities: