Kenya’s inflation rate eased for the second consecutive month in February ,dropping to 5.1 percent up from 5.4 percent and 5.8 percent reported in January 2022 and December 2021 respectively.
This is the lowest inflation rate recorded since October of 2020, mainly due to a slowdown in prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages and housing & utilities helped by a 15% cut on electricity tariff effective January.
In the latest figures released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the percentage change in the price of a basket of goods and services consumed by households increased by 0.40 percent to 119.115 in February 2022.
The inflation defied the increase in food and nonalcoholics, transport, and electricity whose index rose by 0.83 percent, 0.04 percent, 0.12 percent respectively.
“This was mainly due to an increase in prices of commodities under; food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.69 percent); furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (5.41 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (4.79 percent); and transport (4.45 percent),” KNBS noted.
Prices of cooking fat, capsicums (pilipili hoho), potatoes (Irish) and maize flour-sifted increased while those of mangoes, goat milk, and cabbages decreased.
“Prices of food items in February 2022 were relatively high compared with prices of food items recorded in February 2021,” KNBS noted.
During this period, monthly house rent for a single room increased by 0.24 percent.
Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Equipment Index, increased by 0.74 percent between January 2022 and February 2022. This was mainly attributed to increases in prices of laundry soap/bar soap and detergent.
