The overall year on year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.8 per cent, in September 2023.
During the reference month, all sectors continued to record general increase in prices.
Prices of commodities under Transport; Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages; and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels, increased by 13.0, 7.9 and 6.3 per cent, respectively, between September 2022 and September 2023. These three divisions account for over 57 per cent of the weights of the 13 broad categories.
Kenya National Bureau of Standards (KNBS) indicate that the CPI and inflation is generated from data collected through monthly surveys of retail prices that target a representative basket of household consumption goods and services.
“The data collection is conducted in the second and third weeks of the month from a sample of outlets located in 50 data collection zones across the country,” KNBS said in a statement dated September 29, 2023.
The CPI increased by 1.0 per cent from an index of 134.02 in August 2023 to 135.32 in September 2023.
Prices of maize floor dropped
Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increased by 0.7 per cent between August 2023 and September 2023. This food inflation, KNBS says, was mainly attributed to increase in prices of some food items, which outweighed the decrease in prices of other foodstuffs.
Prices of potatoes, cabbages and kales (sukuma-wiki) increased by 18.4, 7.4 and 4.2 per cent, respectively.
During the same period however, prices of maize flour-loose, maize flour-sifted, maize grain-loose as well as wheat flour- white decreased by 6.7, 6.0, 5.4 and 3.6 per cent, respectively.
In addition, the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index increased by 1.4 per cent between August 2023 and September 2023. This was mainly due to increase in the prices of kerosene by 19.4 per cent during the review period.
However, prices of electricity of 200 kWh and 50 kWh dropped by 2.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, between August 2023 and September 2023.
The Transport Index went up by 3.5 per cent between August 2023 and September 2023. The increase was mainly driven by rise in prices of petrol and diesel by 8.7 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively.
