The Central
Bureau of Statistics is pleased to release the Consumer Price
Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for the month of January 2006,
for your information and use. This data is generated through
monthly data collection from retail outlets in 13 urban centres
in Kenya. The data is perceived to be representative of the
spending behaviour of Kenyan urban households. The price data
is collected in the second and third week of the month of review
in the selected retail outlets. This is in order to maintain
consistency in price variations.
Consumer
Price Index (CPI) increased by 8.7 per cent from 185.2 points
in December 2005 to 201.3 points in January 2006. Month-on-month
overall inflation rate increased from 7.6 per cent in December
2005 to 15.4 per cent in January 2006 on account of steep rise
in food prices occasioned by a severe drought prevailing in
the country. On the other hand, month-on-month underlying inflation
rate which excludes food items from the CPI basket declined
from 6.0 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
Table 1 shows
percentage changes in indices of broad categories of items in
the month of January 2006 compared to December 2005 (previous
month).
|
Table 1: One Month Change in Prices |
Broad Item Group |
% Change on Previous month |
Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink |
14.7 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
1.7 |
Clothing & Footwear |
-0.2 |
Housing Costs |
0.4 |
Fuel & Power |
0.6 |
Household Goods & Services |
0.5 |
Medical Goods and Services |
-0.1 |
Transport & Communication |
0.1 |
Recreation & Education |
0.8 |
Personal Goods |
-0.3 |
Food and
non-alcoholic drink index increased by 14.7 per cent in January
2006 compared to December 2005. This was mainly attributed to
rise in prices of cabbages, Kale (Sukuma wiki), dry beans, English
potatoes and green grams. On average, a kilogramme of Kale was
retailing at Kshs 38.83 in January 2006 compared to Kshs 24.45
in December 2005 an increase of 58.8 per cent..
Table
2 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories of items
in the month of December 2005 compared to last year (December
2004).
| Commodity |
Unit
|
December
2005 Average Price |
January
2006 Average Price |
Percentage
Change |
| Kale
(Sukuma Wiki) |
1
Kg |
24.45 |
38.83 |
58.8 |
| Cabbages |
1
Kg |
17.91 |
25.57 |
42.8 |
| English Potatoes
|
1
Kg |
21.38 |
27.13 |
26.9 |
| Green
gramss |
1
Kg |
58.07 |
71.62 |
23.4 |
| Milk
|
½
Litre |
25.60 |
29.03 |
13.4 |
Alcohol
and Tobacco index increased by 1.7 per cent in January 2006 compared
to December 2005 due to increase in price of miraa (Khat).
Increase in cost of electricity caused the Fuel and Power index
to rise by 0.6 per cent between December 2005 and January 2006.
Table
3 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories of items
in the month of January 2006 compared to last year (January 2005).
|
Table
3: One Year Change in Price Indices |
Broad Item Group |
% Change on Previous month |
Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink |
22.6 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
9.9 |
Clothing & Footwear |
2.4 |
Housing Costs |
3.9 |
Fuel & Power |
13.1 |
Household Goods & Services |
4.1 |
Medical Goods and Services |
4.5 |
Transport & Communication |
7.0 |
Recreation & Education |
3.2 |
Personal Goods |
3.2 |
Average All Groups |
15.4 |
Over
the last twelve months, Food and Non-alcoholic drinks index had
the highest increase of 22.6 per cent.
Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics |