Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has released the inflation rate for the month of March 2012, citing an increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 1.34% from 130.76 in February 2012 to 132.51 in March 2012.
The overall inflation rate stood at 15.61% in March 2012.
Food and Non Alcoholic drinks’ index increased by 2.4% between February 2012 and March 2012, an increase that can be attributed to the rise in prices of milk, potatoes, kale (sukuma wiki ), tomatoes and onions in March compared to February. Food prices have increased by 20.3% per cent in March 2012 compared to March 2011.
Housing, water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels index further increased by 0.82% between February 2012 and March 2012 due to the increase in cost of electricity, the cost of 200 KWh units of electricity increased by 10.3%, from KES 3,132 in February 2012 to KES 3,454 in March 2012.
On a positive note, the transport index declined by 0.2% due to the reduction of diesel prices and public transportation.
Prices of other commodities in the Consumer Price basket remained relatively stable in March 2012 compared to February 2012 levels.
From these statistics the prices for all the commodity groups increased except for transport.
