We can all agree that October was a financially demanding month for most Kenyans; and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) backs us up on that.

The Consumer Price Indices (CPI) increased by 0.43 per cent to stand at 132.46 in October 2012 from 131.89 in September 2012.

A CPI measures changes in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households.

While this isn’t the highest recoded CPI this year, it ranks among the top 5 highest CPI’s recoded over the past 12 months, the highest being 134.09 recoded over the month of May 2012.

Statistics from KNBS show that this rise in the CPI is attributed to a 0.23 per cent rise in the Food and Non Alcoholic drinks’ index. The price of potatoes, sugar, bananas, beef and beans, among other food stuff, increased over the month of October in comparison to September. There was though a drop in the price of tomatoes, carrots, sukuma wiki, cabbages, maize grain and green maize.

The Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels’ index also increased by 0.55 per cent between September and October 2012. During this period, electricity bills increased by 7.0 per cent, prices of charcoal and kerosene also increased by 1.2 and 7.8 per cent respectively.

The Transport index also increased by 1.37 per cent over the same period mainly due to rise in cost of petrol, diesel, petrol and bus/matatu fares.

The prices were obtained from selected retail outlets in 25 data collection zones located in 13 urban centers.