Prices of food items, electricity and fuel declined in the month of February, bringing down the level of inflation to 6.3 per cent.
This is from 6.9 per cent in January after a consecutive decline in November and December at 6.8 and 6.6 per cent respectively.
According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the price changes in food, energy and transport, which cover about 57 per cent of household budgets, majorly accounted for the inflation levels.
Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index rose by 0.3 per cent between January 2024 and February 2024.
“The rise in food inflation is mainly attributed to the increase in prices of some food items, which outweighed the decrease in prices of other foodstuffs,” KNBS said in a statement.
Prices of tomatoes, sugar, maize grain-loose and maize flour-loose dropped by 5.7, 4.6, 3.4 and 1.6 per cent, respectively, between January 2024 and February 2024.
During the same period, however, prices of spinach, sukuma wiki and wheat flour-white increased by 3.9, 3.4 and 2.6 per cent, respectively.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels' index decreased by 0.8 per cent between January 2024 and February 2024, mainly due to a drop in prices of 200 kWh and 50 kWh of electricity by 9.3 per cent and 11.0 per cent, respectively.
In addition, the price of a litre of kerosene dropped by 0.5 per cent during the same period.
Prices of gas rose by 4.3 per cent whereas the prices of petrol and diesel decreased by 0.5 per cent between January 2024 and February 2024.
Transport Index went up by 0.2 per cent during the same period.
Year-on-year between February 2023 and February 2024, prices of commodities under transport; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; and food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 10.8, 8.4 and 6.9 per cent, respectively.
Relief on consumers is also expected to be characterised with the appreciating shilling which for the past three weeks has continued to gain against the US dollar on the back of eased debt pressure.
Kenya on Tuesday last week paid back $1.5 billion of the inaugural $2 billion 2014 Eurobond, marking a successful settlement of the buy back plan and boosting investor confidence.
The move according to president William Ruto boosted the local currency.
“Investor confidence has been significantly enhanced, resulting in the appreciation of the shilling against the US dollar, from highs of Sh162 to Sh142,” Ruto said.
“In turn, this has reduced our overall debt by Sh722 billion, and also reduced our debt service costs by Sh195 billion over the next six years, saving the country a total of Sh917 billion.”
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) yesterday quoted the shilling at 143.58, up from the lows of 161.35 in January, reflecting a 17-unit value gain.
