The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Thursday, October 31 published changes in average retail prices of selected commodities in the last month. In the report, cooking oil and electricity are among the six selected items whose prices increased while those of the other selected items decreased.
The Cost of cooking oil (1 litre), electricity (50 kilowatts) and electricity (200 kilowatts) went up by 1 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.
Prices of 1 Kg of Mangoes (9.9 percent), Carrots (5.7 percent) and Oranges (5.1 percent) increased in October.
Additionally, 1 kg of Tomatoes increased by 3.1 percent while that of beef with bones hiked by 1.7 percent.
Items Whose Prices Decreased
The price of 1kg of Kale, Sukuma Wiki decreased by 1.3 percent while that of 2kgs White Wheat Flour and Fortified Maize Flour fell by 1.7 percent.
Similarly, the prices of Sifted Maize Flour (2kgs) and sugar decreased by 1.8 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.
The prices of 1 litre of diesel and cooking gas/LPG (13Kg) decreased by 2 percent and 0.4 percent respectively while that of petrol and kerosene declined by 2 percent.
KNBS Highlights of October 2024 CPI
The overall year-on-year (annual) inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 2.7 per cent, in October 2024.
KNBS said the figure is a decrease from an inflation rate of 3.6 per cent recorded in September 2024.
“The month-to-month inflation rate was 0.2 per cent in October 2024,” KNBS said.
According to KNBS, the annual inflation was mainly due to the movement in prices of commodities under the following Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions:
1. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increased by 4.3 per cent in the last 12 months (October 2023 and October 2024).
2. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels Index increased by 0.4 per cent in the last 12 months.
3. Transport Index decreased by 1.3 per cent in the last 12 months.
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CPI & Year-to-Year Meaning
CPI is a key macroeconomic indicator used to monitor price movements and how they affect policy decisions.
It is defined as a measure of the weighted aggregate change in retail prices paid by consumers for a given basket of goods and services.
Year-on-year inflation is used mainly for economic decision making as the current situation is compared to previous year situation, same period.
The inflation rate is defined as a percentage change in the CPI between two periods.
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The collection of retail prices for the compilation of the CPI is usually conducted during the second and third weeks of every month.
Prices of different commodities are collected from selected retail outlets located in 50 data collection zones.
Out of the 50 data collection zones, 14 are located in Nairobi City County while 36 are located in other urban areas.
Nairobi zones cover outlets in lower-income, middle-income and upper-income areas.
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