Kenya's Inflation Rises to 5.62% Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

By Carolyne Tanui

Nairobi — Kenya's overall year on year inflation rate in April rose slightly to 5.62 percent from the revised 5.51 percent recorded in March according to the latest data by Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

Initially, Inflation in March had dropped to 6.06 percent, down from 6.37 per cent rate recorded in February.

Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge had in March assured that the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to affect the country's inflation.

"Inflation is not a concern anymore and we expect it to decline towards midpoint of around 5 percent, food inflation is expected to come down, tomatoes whose prices had risen have come down. Non-food like fuel remains low and stable, concerns about inflation are low," he said.

KNBS Director General Zachary Mwangi noted that the CPI increased by 0.86 percent from 107.00 in March 2020 to 107.92 in April 2020.

"Food and non-alcoholics increased by 1.77 per cent between March and April while the year on year food inflation in April 2020 stood at 11.58 percent," Mwangi said.

According to the KNBS report, onions and potatoes recorded the highest percentage increase of 6.87 and 6.41 respectively with sukuma wiki and cabbages recording 4.41 and 4.31 percent increase each.

The transport index increased by 1.32 percent in what was attributed to a hiked matatu and taxi fares even as prices of petrol and diesel dropped by 16.32 per cent and 4.29 per cent respectively.

"During the same period, Housing, Water, Electricity,Gas and other fuels index increased by 0.41 percent; this was attributed to increases in electricity and cooking gas which slightly outweighed the decrease of 19.10 per cent that was recorded in respect of kerosene," the report stated.

This article originally appeared in Capital FM. [Photo: Nina R]