Increased prices of some basic food commodities did enough to push the inflation level to 5.1 per cent in May from 5.0 per cent the previous month.
Prices of spinach, 'sukuma-wiki', tomatoes and potatoes (Irish) increased by 18.2, 15.0, 14.0 and 6.2 per cent, respectively.
During the same period, however, prices of maize flour-sifted, fortified maize flour, maize grain-loose and wheat flour-white decreased by 3.2, 2.3, 1.6 and 1.3 per cent, respectively.
The 5.1 record brings to an end the index's three months in a row decreasing trend.
It had dropped from 6.9 percent in January to 6.3 per cent in February and 5.7 per cent in March, and the five per cent last month.
Notably, the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels Index increased by 1.2 per cent between April 2024 and May 2024.
"This was mainly due to rise in prices of 200 kWh and 50 kWh of electricity by 6.9 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively," KNBS says.
"However, the price of gas/LPG and kerosene dropped by 0.6 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively, during the period.
Transport Index on the other hand increased by 0.2 per cent between April 2024 and May 2024.
Prices of petrol and diesel dropped by 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively during the same period.
Year-on-year, the statistics body says the price increase was mainly driven by a rise in prices of commodities under Transport (8.1%); Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (6.2%); and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels (4.4%) between May 2023 and May 2024.
"These three divisions account for over 57 per cent of the household budgets."
