Drop in price of food helped ease cost of living for Kenyans in October

Tuskys Customer Emmah Omwenga at the Nairobi Tuskys vegetable corner along Muindi Mbingu Street. (PHOTO/JONAH ONYANGO)

A drop in the price of food helped ease the cost of living for Kenyans in October as inflation fell to 5.72 per cent from 7.06 per cent in September.

There was an overall drop in the prices of all food items, with food inflation hitting a single digit for the first time in 17 months since June 2016, when food inflation stood at 8.89 per cent.

In its update of the consumer price index and the inflation rate for October, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) attributed the improvement to favourable weather conditions, which have seen the country enjoy relatively better harvests.

A crippling drought that swept through the country and much of the region saw Kenya experience depressed harvests, with inflation hitting a five-year high of 11.48 per cent in June, outside the Government’s preferred band of 2.5-7.5 per cent set earlier in the year.

However, after a steady rise that saw food inflation peak at 21.52 per cent in May, the index has been on a downward trend.

A drop in the price of cabbage, potatoes, beans, and oranges helped drive down inflation - the general price of goods and services - in October to a 15-month low.  

A kilo of cabbage retailed at Sh38.57 during the period under review, a 36.39 per cent decline from October 2016 when the same quantity of the vegetable went for Sh60.63.

The price of a kilo of oranges also declined by 35.9 per cent to sell at Sh89.45 in October 2017, down from Sh139.55 in the same period last year.

A kilo of Irish potatoes, another staple in most households, cost Sh53.26 in October this year compared to Sh80.24 last year.   

Consequently, the food index, which was weighted at 36.04, went down by 1.78 per cent. This was the first time the index had registered a single digit in 17 months.  

The decline must have come as a huge relief for poor households for whom over a third of their income goes to food.

“Between September and October 2017, the food and non-alcoholic drinks’ index decreased by 1.78 per cent. This was due to observed drop in the cost of several food items, which was mainly attributable to favourable weather conditions.

"As a result, the year-on-year food inflation dropped to 8.47 per cent in October 2017,” said KNBS.

However, the price of housing, electricity, water, gas, and other fuels marginally increased by 0.47 per cent.

“This was mainly due to a notable increase in the cost of house rents, electricity, and other cooking fuels,” explained the national statistician.

“The higher cost of electricity was attributed to an increase in the foreign exchange adjustment charges despite the fuel cost and other charges, remaining constant.”

Loose maize grain, used to prepare ugali in most rural households and sold in tins known as gorogoro, went up by 29.17 per cent, with a kilo of the grain trading at Sh56.80, up from Sh43.98 in the same period last year.