Overall monthly inflation eased for the first time this year but the cost of living is still quite high, government records show.
Inflation dropped to 9.21 per cent from 11.7 per cent in May, latest statistics by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show.
This comes after a long drought and reduced lending by financial institutions which saw the country’s Gross Domestic Product decline to 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 from 5.3 per cent during the same period in 2016.
However, the cost of living is still high, compared to the 5.8 per cent reported during the same period in 2016.
According to data by KNBS released on June 30, significant falls in prices of commodities such as potatoes, sugar, milk, and cabbages in the month of May to June led to a decrease in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks’ Index by 2.74 per cent compared to May 2017, which saw a 1.26 per cent of the same.
The average price of a tw- kilogramme packet of maize flour which has been scarce for the last three months, fell to Sh119.08 from Sh129.64 in May this year.
The price of the staple is still high, with a 7.7 per cent increase compared to June last year when it retailed at Sh110.57.
Year-on-year food inflation dropped from 21.52 per cent recorded in May 2017 to 15.81 per cent in June 2017
In the period under review, there was a slight decrease in the prices of petrol and diesel, which were sold at Sh99.68 and Sh87.95 respectively last month down from Sh100.48 for petrol and Sh89.02 for diesel in the month of May. This led to a decrease in the transport index by 0.06 per cent
Prices of most non-food items remained relatively stable during the period under review. Products such as carrots, gas, wheat flour, maize grain and charcoal recorded an increase in price of between 0.4 per cent and 8.3 per cent.
KNBS obtained the data from selected retail outlets in 25 data collection zones which are located in Nairobi and in 13 other urban centres.