Kenya’s annual inflation declined to 4.11% in March from 4.45% in February despite a marginal increment in the cost of food and other basic foodstuffs, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said Thursday.
Between February and March, food and non-alcoholic drinks increased by 1.35%. The KNBS attributed the increment to a combination of the rise and fall in the prices of basic food items.
The cost of transport is expected to move upwards in the next few days following an increment in the cost of fuel, which has been driven further up by this month’s Ksh4 upward increment in the cost of petroleum.
The transport index went up by 1.49% over the same period due to the higher cost of petrol, diesel, which ignited an upward move in the price of transport in most of the 13 urban centres captured in the national data.
The cost of energy went up by 0.96% between February and March 2013. The increment was caused by higher costs of electricity, kerosene and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
“During the the period under review, electricity charges went up on account of higher fuel and forex adjustment charges which rose from Ksh5.38 to Ksh6.21 frommKsh1.04 to Ksh1.69 per KWh,” said Zachary Mwangi, the acting Director General of KNBS.
In January, the annual inflation stood at 3.67%.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK announced it intends to keep monitoring the results of the continuous tightening of the monetary policy.
