Inflation rises to eight-month high in April

The cost of living in Kenya rose to an eight-month high in April, nearly breaching the government’s upper limit of 7.5 per cent due to a significant rise in the cost of food. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By JOSHUA MASINDE
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The cost of living in Kenya rose to an eight-month high in April, nearly breaching the government’s upper limit of 7.5 per cent due to a significant rise in the cost of food.

Inflation, which measures the cost of living, rose to a high of 7.08 per cent in April up from 6.31 per cent last in March, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicated.

KNBS indicated that between March and April, there were significant price increases in respect of several food items such as maize flour, potatoes, tomatoes, milk, cabbages, beans and onions, which pushed up the food and non-alcoholic rrinks’ index by 3.92 per cent.

“The observed food price increases were mainly attributed to the dry weather conditions experienced in the first quarter of the year,” KNBS director-general, Zachary Mwangi, noted.

In the same period, housing, water, electricity and other fuels’ index increased by 0.23 per cent.

“Although there was a slight fall in the cost of electricity and cooking gas, in aggregate, these and other observed price decreases were slightly outweighed by increased costs of house rents, kerosene, charcoal and other utilities,” KNBS said.