Kenya’s inflation rate eased in March to 6.06 per cent compared to 6.37 per cent in February an unlikely scenario in April when the real impact of the coronavirus disruption if felt
The country is currently grappling with tough economic times which has slowed production, led to job loses and made the shilling volatile against the US dollar
Latest Kenya National Bureau of Standards figures shows that while food and non-alcoholic drinks index increased by 0.55 per cent in March there was a respite in a drop in the price of petroleum products.
In the food basket, an increase was witnessed in prices of items such as mangoes, Irish potatoes, onions and cooking oils which increased by 5.39, 2.33, 2.06 and 0.83 per cent respectively.
The food items retailed at an average price of Sh98.98, Sh69.81, 1Sh10.60 and Sh202.40 respectively.
However, during the same period, average prices of tomatoes and spinach dropped by 6.06 and 4.87 percent to Sh120.60 and Sh55.28 respectively.
The price of a kilo loose maize flour also dropped by 1.46 per cent to retail at Sh53.36 compared to Sh54.15 in February.
The alcoholic beverages , tobacco and narcotics index also increased by 0.14 per cent, while it's year on year rate stood at 7.63 per cent.
During the review period, the transport index decreased by 0.10 per cent, mainly due to decrease in prices of petrol at 1.28 per cent.
The Energy Petroleum Regulatory Authority in March reduced the price of a litre of super petrol by Sh2.
The regulator attributed the drop to decreased prices of the weighted average cost of imported refined petroleum products.
This month fuel users should expect a further drop in fuel prices as global oil prices slumped on Russia- Saudi Arabia price war. However, the benefits drop could be cancelled out by a weaker shilling.
The March 2020 inflation numbers reflect the newly rebased Consumer Price Index(CPI) which was introduced by The Central Bank of Kenya.
"The CPI increased by 0.18 per cent from 106.33 per cent in February to 106.53 in March," KNBS said in a statement.
The rebased CPI was put in place to enhance the quality of statistics, including the measurement of inflation, upon which policymakers base their decisions.
The CPI new basket has a total of 330 items, compared to the previous basket of 234 items.
The weights in the rebased CPI have also been updated and the Expenditure Groups have been recalculated, based on the 2015/16 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey.
