2018/19 financial year closes with low inflation

 

In Summary

• Food crops inflation: During the period, annual food crops and related inflation increased to -3.7 per cent for the year ended June 2019 compared to -5.4 per cent in May 2019.

By MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH

Kampala. Inflation averaged at 3.1 per cent in the 2018/19 financial year, which closed yesterday, according to data from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos).

Average inflation for the year ended June 30, closed at 3.1 per cent compared to 3.4 per cent, which was recorded in the 2017/18 financial year.

Inflation has been contained in the last two years below Bank of Uganda’s 5 per cent, which means that movement of prices of goods and services has been minimal.

In a press briefing at the weekend, Ubos said the decline in headline inflation was due to a reduction in annual food crops and related items inflation that recorded -4.4 per cent for the financial year 2018/19 compared to the 3.2 per cent for the 2017/18 year financial.

Mr Vicente Nsubuga Musoke, the Ubos principal statistician price statistics, said: “Core inflation increased to 3.8 per cent for the 2018/19 financial year compared to 2.7 per cent in the 2017/18 financial year.”

Annual headline inflation for the past two financial years, he said, also closed relatively at a lower rate below the Central Bank policy target of 5 per cent, except for the 2016/17 financial year, which closed at 5.7 per cent.

Mr Nsubuga said annual headline inflation for the year ended June 2019 was at 3.4 per cent compared to 3.3 per cent recorded during the year ended May 2019.
“Increase in headline inflation is largely attributed to annual core inflation which rose to 4.9 per cent for the year ended June 2019 compared to 4.6 per cent for the year ended May 2019,” he said.

The driver for the increase in annual core inflation, Ubos said, was annual services inflation that rose to 4.7 per cent for the year ended June 2019 compared to 4 per cent in the previous year.
Annual education inflation increased to 6.8 per cent for the year ended June 2019 compared to 3.6 per cent for the year ended May 2019.

Other goods inflation rose to 5.1 per cent in the period under review compared to 4.9 per cent.

Stable inflation

Food crops inflation: During the period, annual food crops and related inflation increased to -3.7 per cent for the year ended June 2019 compared to -5.4 per cent in May 2019.

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