Prices of all essential goods ranging from food items and non-food items increased in the last one year, a new report published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows.
The report reviewing the period between January 2023 and January 2024 shows that food items recorded a price increase ranging between 57.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent while non-food items rose by a margin ranging between 55.1 per cent and 4.0 per cent.
As outlined in the report, the price of carrots rose by 57.1 per cent followed by onions (51.4 per cent), sugar (32.1 per cent), oranges (15.7 per cent), beef (15.3 per cent) and tomatoes (13.4 per cent).
Others are cabbages (12.5 per cent), mangoes (11.4 per cent), potatoes (10.1 per cent), Kale (4.1 per cent) and fresh unpacked cow milk (0.6 per cent).
In the non-food items category, electricity of 50 kilowatts recorded the highest price increase at 55.1 per cent followed by electricity of 200 kilowatts (41.1 per cent), kerosene (32.8 per cent), diesel (21.0 per cent), petrol (16.8 per cent), exercise books (10.5 per cent), private tuition (5.7 per cent) and monthly house rent (4.0 per cent).
In the month-to-month category, cabbages recorded the highest increase followed by carrots, oranges, potatoes and beef.
Fresh unpacked milk, kales, onions, sugar, tomatoes and mangoes recorded a drop in price between December last year and January this year.
In the non-food category, electricity, exercise books, private tuition and monthly rent for a single room recorded an increase while petrol, kerosene and diesel recorded a price dip.
According to KNBS, the inflation rate jumped to 6.9 per cent in January 2024 from 6.6 per cent in December 2023.
"The rise in annual inflation was mainly due to an increase in prices of commodities under the following Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions," read the report in part.
"Kenya Urban CPI was rebased in February 2019 using the weights derived from 2015/16 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS) data, which was conducted from September 2015 to August 2016. Current Kenya Urban CPI adopts 2018 Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) categorization. Under the current CPI, Kenya has a total of 330 Elementary Aggregates (EAS) and in each EA, there are items/products for which prices are collected."
