Kenya National Bureau of Statistics is pleased to release the Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for the month of April 2009, for your information and use. This data is generated through monthly data collection from retail outlets in 13 urban centres in Kenya and is perceived to represent the spending behaviour of Kenyan urban households. These prices are collected in selected retail outlets within the second and third weeks of the month of review in order to maintain consistency in the price variations.  

The CPI increased by 2.9 percent from 345.33 points in March 2009 to 355.36 points in April 2009.  Month-on-month overall inflation rate increased from 25.8 percent in March 2009 to 26.1 percent in March 2009.  On the other hand, the month on month underlying inflation rate which excludes food items from the CPI basket increased from 7.7 percent in March to 8.2 percent in April 2009.

Table 1 shows Weights and the percentage changes to the indices of broad categories of items in the month of April 2009 compared to March 2009 (previous month) and the month of April 2009 compared to April 2008 (previous year).

 

Table 1: One Month and twelve months Change in Price Indices
Broad Item Group	% Weights	% Change on Previous month (April 09/JMarch 09 )	% Change on Previous year April 09/April 08)
Food & Non-alcoholic drink	50.50	3.8	34.6
Alcohol & Tobacco	2.97	1.0	14.0
Clothing & Footwear	9.00	1.5	6.2
Housing Costs	11.74	0.5	10.0
Fuel & Power	4.18	-0.9	4.3
Household Goods & Services	5.82	1.0	11.7
Medical Goods and Services	1.59	1.0	18.4
Transport & Communication	5.75	0.0	3.7
Recreation & Education	6.02	0.3	6.4
Personal Goods	2.45	2.7	12.9
Average all Groups	100.00	2.9	26.1

Food and non alcoholic drinks’ index, increased by 3.8 percent from 489.76 point in March 2009 to 508.34 points in April 2009. This increase was due to rise in the prices of English potatoes, maize grain, onions and sugar among other food items. The average price of a kilogram of English potatoes increased by 17.19 percent from KSh. 39.89 in March, to KSh.46.74 in April 2009. Similarly, the average prices of Maize grain, onions and sugar, increased by 6.13, 16.77 and 3.07 percent, respectively. There were however notable falls in the prices of maize flour, cooking fat, and wheat flour by 3.57, 1.87and 2.47 percents, respectively.

The fuel and power index decreased by 0.9 percent  from 348.41 points in March to 345.24 points in April  due to continued decreases in the prices of diesel and petrol. The average cost of a litre of diesel decreased by 3.29 percent from ksh.72.04 in March to KSh. 69.67 in April 2009. Similarly, the average cost of petrol decreased by 2.25 percent.