The cost of living (inflation) eased in the month of April from 5.7 per cent in March to 5.0 per cent in April, new data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) states.
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which carries the largest weight, decreased by 0.1 per cent between March and April.
- The price of sugar, maize grain-loose, fortified maize flour dropped between March and April. However, during the same period, prices of onions-leeks and bulbs, tomatoes and oranges increased by 5.8, 4.3 and 4.0 per cent, respectively.
- The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel index dropped by 1.3 per cent between March and April mainly due to a decline in price of Kerosene by 9.7 per cent.
In addition, prices of 200kWh and 50kWh of electricity dropped by 6.4 per cent and 7.7 per cent, respectively. However the price of gas rose by 0.3 per cent during the period under review.
The transport index reduced by 0.3 per cent between March 2024 and April 2024. This was mainly due to a drop in prices of petrol and diesel by 2.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively.
In the April-May fuel review, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) reduced Petrol and Diesel price by KSh 5.31 per litre and KSh 10 per litre respectively. A litre of Super petrol currently retails at KSh 193.84 in Nairobi while Diesel retails at KSh180.38.
During its last meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted that overall inflation is expected to continue declining in the near term, supported by lower food and fuel prices, and pass-through effects of the recent exchange rate appreciation.
“Overall inflation is expected to moderate further in the near term, supported by easing food and energy prices, pass-through effects of the recent exchange rate appreciation, and the impact of monetary policy actions which continue to filter through the economy,” noted Kamau Thugge, Chairman, Monetary Policy Committee.
Therefore, the MPC concluded that the current monetary policy stance will ensure that overall inflation continues to decline towards the 5.0 percent mid-point of the target range, and thus decided to retain the Central Bank Rate (CBR) at 13 percent.
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