Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya’s inflation slowed marginally by 10 basis points in the month of January down to nine per cent. This is the third month in a row that inflation has dropped but remained above the central bank’s upper target of 7.5 percent.
Inflation in December of 2022 had decreased to 9.1 per cent from 9.5 per cent in November. The marginal drop in the last three months signals future hope of easing in the cost of living, which has hit the highest levels due to soaring food and energy prices.
Central Bank of Kenya had on Monday retained the base lending rate at 8.75 per cent shrugging off rising concerns over inflation. “The overall year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 9.0 per cent, in January 2023. The CPI increased by 0.2 per cent from an index of 128.99 in December 2022 to 129.29 in January 2023,” KNBS said in its monthly review.
The rise in inflation was largely due to increase in prices of transport, food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels
The commodities account for over 57 per cent of the weights of the 13 broad categories. KNBS says that prices of commodities under furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance recorded a 9.3 per cent increase.
The Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’ Index, increased by 0.3 per cent between December 2022 and January 2023. This was mainly due to an increase in prices of 50 Kilowatts of electricity units and 200 Kilowatts of electricity by 0.5 percent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
The Transport index remained the same between December 2022 and January 2023 due to the energy regulators’ move to maintain fuel prices. The Education index increased by 0.9 per cent between December 2022 and January 2023. This was mainly driven by an increase in tuition fees for pre· primary, primary and secondary schools in the san1e period
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