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According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the price of a kilo of tomatoes increased by the highest margin - 21.23 percent - from Sh67.05 in the month of December to Sh81.28 this month/FILE

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Kenya’s inflation rises in January

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the price of a kilo of tomatoes increased by the highest margin - 21.23 percent - from Sh67.05 in the month of December to Sh81.28 this month/FILE

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the price of a kilo of tomatoes increased by the highest margin – 21.23 percent – from Sh67.05 in the month of December to Sh81.28 this month/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 31 – Overall monthly inflation for the month of January has slightly gone up to 7.21 percent from 7.15 percent last month, attributed to increase in the cost of food items, fuel and transport.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the price of a kilo of tomatoes increased by the highest margin – 21.23 percent – from Sh67.05 in the month of December to Sh81.28 this month.

The average price of a kilo of onions went up by 6.12 percent to sell at Sh114.53 in January compared to Sh107.92 in December.

A kilo of sukuma wiki sold at an average price of Sh45.01 in January which is 2.71 percent higher than December price which was Sh43.83, while the average cost of a kilo of beef increased by a small margin of 0.44 percent to Sh355.98 from Sh354.40.

“In the month of January, food and non alcoholic drinks index increased by one percent. Some food items outweighed falls, resulting in an aggregate in the index,” KNBS stated on Friday in its monthly review.

In the period under review, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels Index increased by 0.87 percent due to rise in costs of house rents and common cooking fuels.

“During the month, a slight increase in forex adjustment charges was recorded and this caused an upsurge in the cost of electricity compared to last month,” KNBS said.

Transport index increase by 1.95 percent over the review period mainly due to higher prices of petrol, diesel, parking charges as well as public transport fares.

Early this month, PineBridge Investment Limited projected that the Country’s inflation could hit 10 percent in the first half of 2014.

The rise would be due to both internal and external factors including high cost of food items, high oil prices and the continued impact implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) Act.

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Inflation in the better part of 2013 remained modest underpinned by relatively stable energy prices and moderation in food inflation.

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