Inflation drops to 3.7 per cent

Passengers flock without wearing facemasks in the New Taxi Park in Kampala on August 13. According to Ubos, Uganda's annual core inflation has been rising since June, but dropped in October mainly because of Transport Services-fares. PHOTO/ KELVIN ATUHAIRE

Summary

• Inflation for the period ended November dropped from 4.5 per cent in October 2020 on the back of a slight drop in the cost of public transport fares, which is a fundamental factor in the cost of goods and services. 

By MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH

More by this Author

The slight decrease in transport fares for the short distance below 50 kilometres has pushed down annual headline inflation to 3.7 per cent, according to data from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos). 

Inflation for the period ended November dropped from 4.5 per cent in October 2020 on the back of a slight drop in the cost of public transport fares, which is a fundamental factor in the cost of goods and services. 

While releasing the Consumer Price Index for the period ended November, Ms Aliziki Kaudha Lubega, the Ubos director macroeconomic statistics, said transport fares, especially for shorter distances, had dropped by 6 per cent while those for longer distances had not changed.  

During the period annual core inflation declined from 6.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent due to the decrease in annual services inflation to 11.1 per cent from 11.8 per cent in October.  

Ms Aliziki said specifically, transport services inflation declined to 60.4 per cent for the period ended November compared to 64 per cent in October. 
Other goods inflation declined to 2.2 per cent from 2.6 per cent while food crops and related items inflation decelerated to - 7.3 per cent from - 6.1 per cent in October. 
This, she said, was mainly due to annual inflation for vegetables that dropped to - 5.1 per cent from - 2.8 per cent in October.  
Annual fruits inflation remained at - 9.9 per cent while food crops such as banana, maize flour continued to register low prices. 

Ubos data indicate that in particular, annual inflation for bananas decreased to - 22.77 per cent in November compared to - 21.2 per cent in October.   
Annual Energy Fuel and Utilities (EFU) inflation in November declined to - 1.4 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent in October.  

The decrease was mainly due to liquid energy fuel inflation, which declined to - 4.8 per cent for in November. 

Annual inflation for cooking gas declined to - 9.5 per cent in November compared to - 7.5 per in  October.  

During the period, annual inflation for diesel dropped to - 5.1 per cent compared to - 5 per cent recorded in October 2020. 

Regional headline inflation

Region	Rate
Arua	7.9 per cent
Kampala	4.5 per cent
Masaka	4.3 per cent
Mbarara	3.2 per cent
Gulu	2 per cent
Jinja	2.9 per cent
Fort Portal	1.3 per cent
Mbale	1.3 per cent

moketch@ug.nationmedia.com