The cost of living measure dropped to 5.49 per cent in May on account of favourable weather conditions which resulted in lower food prices.
Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows the 1.09 per cent drop in the monthly inflation was largely driven by a reduction in the year-on-year food inflation which decreased to 6.33 per cent from 8.17 per cent in April.
“The food and non-alcoholic drinks index decreased by 0.37 per cent in May mainly due to favourable weather conditions which led to lower prices for some commodities,” KNBS director general Zachary Mwangi said in a statement.
During this period, prices of spinach, sukuma wiki (kale) and tomatoes recorded decreases of 10.69, 9.35 and 6.78 per cent respectively.
During the month a kilo of spinach cost Sh63 down from Sh70.54 in April while sukuma wiki and tomatoes dropped to Sh60 and Sh97 per kilo respectively.
However, the cost of some food items such as maize grain, sifted maize flour and sugar increased when compared to prices in April. This was however lower than prices recorded over the same period last year.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index increased by 0.61 percentage points due to the higher cost of rent and cooking fuels.
