Rise in house rent, food prices pushes up October inflation

Nairobi: Rising housing rent and food and energy prices pushed up Kenya's inflation rate in the year to October, the statistics office said on Friday.

Inflation rose to 6.72 percent year-on-year in October from 5.97 percent a month earlier, and month-on-month inflation was 0.50 percent, the Kenya Nation Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

The statistics agency said the food and non-alcoholic drinks index - which has a 36.04 percent weighting in the basket of goods used to measure inflation - rose 11.27 percent year-on-year and 0.88 percent from a month earlier.

The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels' index rose 0.69 percent from a month earlier and 3.96 percent year-on year.

The index has an 18.30 percent weighting and is second after food and non-alcoholic drinks.

The central bank has a medium-term inflation target range of between 2.5 percent and 7.5 percent.