Sharp increases in the prices of beans, maize flour, green grams as well as other foodstuffs pushed Kenya’s inflation rate to 5.7 percent in June 2019, effectively wiping out the temporary benefits the recents rains had brought on the cost of living in the country.
The 5.7 percent inflation rate is slightly higher than the 5.49 percent inflation rate recorded in May 2019.
Since Inflation essentially measures the cost of living, an increase simply means that consumers in Kenya, used more money to buy the same quantities of foods than they did previously (in the past month for example), this taking away their spending power.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) stated that although prices of vegetables (including Kales, Spinach and Tomatoes), recorded decreases of 2.42, 6.87 and 0.36 percent respectively on account of the good weather, the prices of Beans, Maize Grains, Green Grams and sifted maize flour increased during the same month of June, 2019.
A kilogram of loose maize grain in June, is retailing at an average price of 48.70 Kenyan Shillings, which is higher than the 48.45 Kenyan Shillings figure that was the case in May.
A kilo of beans on the other hand, is selling at 120.26 Kenyan Shillings in June, which is higher than the 118.33 Kenyan Shillings figure from last month (May 2019).
Director General Of The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Zachary Mwangi, said in a statement that, “Over the same period, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel’s index increased by 0.05 per cent as a result of higher costs of house rents which outweighed notable drops in the cost of electricity and kerosene,”.
Zachary Mwangi said that in that regard, the cost of consumption of 50 Kwh and 200 Kwh of electricity decreased by 0.91 per cent and 0.64 per cent respectively.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) added that “The transport index increased by 0.26 per cent, on account of increase in pump prices of petrol and diesel,”.
According to Business Daily, the food and non-alcoholic index also decreased by 1.6 percent in June 2019, compared to a decline of 0.37 percent in May.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) says “This was mainly due to favourable weather conditions which led to increased food production and subsequently to reduced food prices for some commodities,”.
