The annual consumer price inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index was 3.5 per cent in February 2025, up from 3.3 per cent in January 2025.
This is an indication that the general price level in February 2025 was 3.5 per cent higher than it was in February 2024.
The price increase was primarily driven by rising prices in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages category (6.4%) and Transport category (0.7%) over the same period.
There was a decline in prices in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels category by 0.8 per cent over the one year. These three divisions together account for over 57 per cent of the total weight across the 13 major expenditure categories.
How Consumer Price Indices and inflation rate are measured
The CPI measures the cost of purchasing a fixed basket of goods and services, comparing current prices to those of a base period (February 2019).
The inflation rate is derived from data collected through a monthly survey of retail prices that target a representative basket of household goods and services, with data gathered during the second and third weeks of the month from a statistically representative sample of outlets in urban areas across 50 data collection zones nationwide.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the overall index increased from 142.68 in January 2025 to 143.12 in February 2025, resulting in a monthly inflation of 0.3 per cent.
Food and Beverage Index increased by 0.6 per cent between January 2025 and February 2025.
Notably, prices of sugar cooking oil (salad) and tomatoes went up by 3.2, 1.6 and 1.3 per cent, respectively, between January 2025 and February 2025.
During the same period, prices of wheat flour-white and potatoes (Irish) dropped by 2.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels index increased by 0.1 per cent between January 2025 and February 2025. The increase was attributed to an increase in the price of gas/LPG by 0.6 per cent between January 2025 and February 2025.
Prices of 50kWh electricity and 200kWh electricity, however, declined by 1.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, in the same period.
The Transport Index also rose by 0.1 per cent between January 2025 and February 2025, mainly due to an increase in prices for local flights by 4.8 per cent. Prices of petrol and diesel remained the same between January 2025 and February 2025.
Core and non-core inflation rates
In February 2025, the rate of core inflation was 2.0 per cent. The core index increased from 122.77 in January 2025 to 128.01 in February 2025.
On the other hand, non-core inflation stood at 8.2 per cent during the same period.
Core inflation is derived by excluding items whose prices are highly volatile from the basket.
“Core inflation contributed 2.0 points to the overall inflation while non-core contributed 1.5 points to the same in February 2025,” said KNBS Director General Macdonald Obudho.
“Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed to 1.6 points to the non-core inflation rate,” Obudho added.
