The country's inflation rate dropped by 0.3 in the month of November, Kenya National Bureau Statistics has revealed.
The new inflation rate stands at 9.5 per cent, down from 9.6 recorded in the month of October.
The new rate is, however, still high considering that the last time the country witnessed such a rate was in June 2017 when it hit 9.21 per cent.
Monthly inflation data released on Wednesday by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows a measure of the cost of living over the last 12 months rose from 5.8 per cent in November of 2021 to 9.5 percent in November 2022
“The rise in annual inflation was mainly due to an increase in prices of commodities under the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions,” KNBS said in a statement.
KNBS pointed out that the year-on-year rise in inflation was largely due to an increase in the prices of commodities.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages shot up by 15.4 per cent, and transport by 11.7 per cent. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 6.1 per cent.
Inflation — a measure of the cost of living over the last 12 months had in October climbed to a five-and-a-half-year high of 9.6 per cent from 9.2 per cent a month earlier on elevated food and energy prices.
Kenya’s inflation has since June breached the target range of 2.5-7.5 per cent, prompting the CBK’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise benchmark interest rates to curb consumer spending.
CBK on the 22 of November raised its base lending rate by 50 basis points to tame the rising cost of living.
The increase is likely to push up the cost of credit in the country which currently stands at an average of 14 per cent.
Increasing the key policy lending rate makes borrowing more expensive, and this is expected to reduce spending by businesses and families with the ultimate goal of lowering the prices of goods and services.
