Inflation rises to 3.5 per cent

Services such as transport have seen an increase in inflation in April. PHOTO BY EDGAR R BATTE  

In Summary

• During the period under review, communication services continued to register higher inflation although there were minimal declines in April.

By MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH

Kampala. The increase in prices of some goods such as fish and services, especially
road transport have led to an increase in headline inflation from 3.0 per cent to 3.5 per cent for the year ending April 2019.

The rising prices, impact negatively on the cost of living, the cost of doing business and borrowing money from banks.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) said yesterday, the increase was largely attributed to the annual core inflation, which rose to 4.8 per cent for the year ending April compared to the 4.6 per cent in March 2019.

While presenting the Consumer Price Index in Kampala yesterday, Mr John Mayende, the Ubos acting director of macroeconomic statistics, said: “The driver for the increase in annual core in inflation was due to the increase in goods inflation that increased to 4.9 per cent for the year ended April.”
However, the increase is still below the Central Bank target of 5 per cent.

Mr Mayende said annual inflation for fish increased to 3.4 per cent for the year ending April 2019 compared to the 2.4 per cent recorded in March 2019 while annual services inflation increased to 4.5 per cent from 4.4 per cent in the same period under review.
Transport, a key ingredient in a number of aspects, saw inflation increase to 6.8 per cent for the period compared to 5.4 per cent in March.
During the period under review, communication services continued to register higher inflation although there were minimal declines in April.

For instance, data shows that the annual inflation for communication declined to 20.5 per cent for the year ended April compared to 21.5 per cent recorded in March.
Annual food crops and related items inflation increased to -6.2 per cent for the year ending April compared to the -9.9 per cent in March 2019.
This was mainly driven by vegetable inflation, which increased by -1.9 per cent in April compared to -5.2 per cent in March.
Annual fruits inflation increased to -15.2 per cent compared to -18.4 per cent in the period.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com