Commodity Watch

Here Is A List Of Commodities Whose Prices Have Increased

BY Getrude Mathayo · April 1, 2022 02:04 pm

KEY POINTS

The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index, increased by 0.71 percent between February 2022 and March 2022 according to the government agency.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Prices of cooking oil, wheat flour white, and tomatoes increased by 6.50, 4.47, and 4.22 percent in March 2022, respectively.

Angry Kenyans have been taking to social media to protest about the high cost of living in the country driven by a spike in the cost of basic commodities including food, electricity, and fuel.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has released a report on the inflation rate in the country. The overall year on year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.56 percent, in March 2022 according to the bureau

The report released on Thursday, March 31, also listed 14 basic commodities whose prices rose in the same month.

“The prices of most items increased significantly, in March compared to other previous months this year. This was mainly attributed to the increase in prices of most of the food items which outweighed the decrease in prices of others,” KNBS stated.

Prices of cooking oil, wheat flour white, and tomatoes increased by 6.50, 4.47, and 4.22 percent in March 2022, respectively

Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household equipment index, increased by 1.36 percent between February 2022 and March 2022. This was due to an increase in prices of laundry/bar soap and detergents, among other items.

Prices of green grams, carrots, and oranges decreased by 0.97, 0.69, and 0.49 percent, respectively. Prices of food items in March 2022 were relatively high compared with prices of food items recorded in March 2021 during the same period.

Among the commodities whose prices increased include wheat flour, fresh packeted cow milk, exotic eggs, cooking oil, kale-sukuma wiki, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, house rent, gas prices

Others include laundry soap, detergents, petrol, and diesel. In that period alone, the price of wheat flour alone increased from Ksh144 to Ksh151, that of salad increased from ksh312 to Ksh332, LPG gas from Ksh2,659 to Ksh2,866.

The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index, increased by 0.71 percent between February 2022 and March 2022 according to the government agency

“Transport Index increased by 0.63 percent between February 2022 and March 2022. The hike was attributed to an increase in prices of petrol and diesel that rose by 3.83 percent and 4.49 percent, respectively,” KNBS stated in their report.