NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 31 – Kenya’s year on year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.44 per cent, in July 2021.
This is according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics which says the climb was mainly driven by rise in prices of commodities especially food and transport.
During the period under review, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices increased by 8.84 percent, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose by 6.03 percent.
Transport was however the commodity with the biggest hike, after prices shot up by 10.33 percent between July 2020 and July 2021.
The CPI increased by 0.20 per cent from 115.110 in June 2021 to 115.337 in July 2021.
A decrease was however noted in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks’ Index, which dropped by 0.46 percent between June 2021 and July 2021.
According to Macdonald G. Obudho, the Director General of KNBS, this was mainly attributed to decreases in prices of some food items, which outweighed the increase in prices of others.
For instance, prices of tomatoes, white bread and oranges decreased by 4.12, 2.79 and 1.81 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, prices of cooking oil (salad) and cabbages increased by 3.64 percent and 2.45 percent, respectively.
A rise was noted in the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ index, which increased by 1.34 percent between June 2021 and July 2021.
“This was mainly attributed to increase in prices of cooking gas, which went up by 15.43 percent. In addition, electricity prices went up by 0.76 percent and 1.06 percent for 200 Kilowatts and 50 Kilowatts, respectively,” Obudho said.
The information and communication index increased by 1.81 percent, mainly as a result of an increase in price of mobile phone airtime, which went up by 2.40 per cent between June 2021 and July 2021.
