Kenya’s consumer prices increased at the slowest rate in 46 months in July, official data shows, mainly on falling average prices of food and energy.
Inflation — a measure of the increase in cost of goods and services over the previous year — fell to 4.3 percent from 4.6 percent in June, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The rate of growth in average prices was slowest since September 2020 when it stood at 4.2 percent.
The easing inflationary pressure has been supported by increased food production and moderating cost of fuel and electricity compared with July last year.
Average food prices rose 5.6 percent year-on-year in July but fell a marginal 0.5 percent compared with June, the data shows, benefitting from fairly heavy rainfall in the past year and lower prices of fertiliser.
“In particular, prices of tomatoes, wheat flour-brown, onion-leeks and bulbs and maize flour-sifted dropped by 5.5, 4.2, 4.1 and 3.3 percent, respectively, between June 2024 and July 2023,” KNBS Managing Director Macdonald Obudho said in a statement.
The KNBS data shows the price of maize flour, a staple, fell by the biggest margin compared to a year ago.
Kenyan households paid an average of Sh130.38 for a two kilogramme(kg) packet of sifted maize flour, a 35.8 percent drop compared with Sh202.93 in July 2023.
Prices of fortified maize flour also dipped 35.1 percent to Sh147.30 per two-kilo packet, while a kg of loose maize grain also cost 29.8 percent lower to Sh60.16 on average in July.
Households also experienced cost relief on other food stuff such as sugar which fell 22.3 percent year-on-year per kg to Sh164.42 and white wheat flour which dropped 10.9 percent to Sh177.07 per two-kg packet on average.
The cost of cabbages, however, jumped 46.1 percent year-on-year to Sh78.42 per kg on average in July.
On the other hand, the rise in average cost of housing, water, electricity, cooking gas, and other fuels rose a modest 3.9 percent year-on-year but fell a measly 0.4 percent month-on-month.
Homes consuming 200 kilowatts-hour (units) paid an average of Sh5,663.40 in July, an 11.7 percent fall over a year ago, while purchases of 50 units cost 4.4 percent lower to Sh1,262.18 on average.
The 4.5 percent year-on-year drop per litre of diesel to Sh172.33 on average and the 3 percent drop in petrol to an average of Sh189.46 per litre helped ease the rise in transportation costs, the KNBS data shows.
The transportation index was flat month-on-month, edging up a slit 0.1 percent compared with June, but rose 4.0 percent compared with a year earlier.
