Inflation rates drops to 5pc in April as cooking gas prices soar

Traders hawk in a street in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

The inflation rate for April dropped to five per cent from 5.7 per cent in March, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has said.

In the latest release, KNBS attributed the decrease in the inflation rate to the reduction in prices of various commodities among them fuel and food.

“The overall inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.0 per cent in April 2024,” KNBS Director-General Macdonald Obudho stated.

The prices of a fortified 2 kg packet of maize flour dropped by three per cent this month, while a 2 kg sifted maize flour packet dropped by 2.3 per cent.

A 2 KG packet of wheat flour on the other hand dropped by 2.5 per cent, while the prices of a packet of 1 KG sugar and a litre of cooking oil dropped by 8.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.

However, the prices of vegetables like onion, tomatoes and oranges all went up in April.

Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels also dropped by 1.3 per cent mainly due to the decrease in the prices of gas and electricity in the country.

Cooking gas, on the contrary, went up by 0.3 per cent during the same period.

“The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels' Index increased by 1.3 per cent between March and April 2024, mainly due to a decline in prices of kerosene by 9.7 per cent. However, the prices of gas/LPG rose by 0.3 per cent during the period,” the Statistics Bureau noted.

The inflation rate is however still high compared to the same period in 2023.