June Inflation Drops To 4.59%, Hits 9-Month Low

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data has revealed that the inflation rate in the month of June fell to 4.59 percent, a drop from a revised May rate of 5.33 percent, and the lowest figure since September last year when it was recorded at 3.83 percent.

The drop has been related to a sustained fall in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages and the continued loss in household incomes under the coronavirus lockdowns.

The data indicates that food and non-alcoholic beverages’ index dropped by 1.27 percent over the month, while alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics index also dropped by 0.17 percent.

However, foodstuffs including onions and kale (sukuma wiki), increased by 3.51 percent and 4.67 percent on the month-on-month inflation and by 23.17 percent and 22.54 percent on year-on-year change.

“This resulted from observed price decreases outweighing increases. For instance, prices of tomatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbages, oranges and wheat flour decreased by 12.16, 5.05, 4.84 and 4 percent respectively in June relative to the prices in May,” KNBS stated.

In June, Kenyans paid less for housing, water, electricity, cooking gas and motor fuel with the index decreasing by 0.81 percent compared to the previous month.

“This was mainly attributed to a 21.33 percent decrease in the cost of kerosene,” KNBS added.

Commuters, on the other hand, paid more over the month as the transport index indicated a 2.08 percent rise.

This was as a result of a 6.81 percent increase in the price of petrol, which outweighed a 4.76 percent decrease in the cost of diesel recorded over the same period.

Over the month, the price of a litre of petrol was Sh90.34, a Sh6.81 increase over the month while one litre of kerosene and diesel dropped by Sh21.33 and Sh4.76 to retail at Sh63.79 and Sh75.88 respectively.

The data shows two-bedroom house rent dropped marginally by one basis points to Sh17,158.65 on average across the country.