The Central Bureau of Statistics is pleased to release the Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for the month of November 2005, 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 1.2 per cent from 179.8 points in October 2005 to 182.0 points in November 2005. Month-on-month overall inflation rate increased from 3.7 per cent in October 2005 to 6.0 per cent in November 2005. On the other hand, month-on-month underlying inflation rate which excludes food items from the CPI basket rose marginally from 5.7 per cent to 5.8 per cent.
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Table 1 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories in November 2005 compared to October 2005 (previous month).
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Table 1: One Month Change in Prices |
Broad Item Group |
% Change on Previous month |
Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink |
1.9 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
-0.5 |
Clothing & Footwear |
0.1 |
Housing Costs |
-0.1 |
Fuel & Power |
1.5 |
Household Goods & Services |
0.2 |
Medical Goods and Services |
-0.4 |
Transport & Communication |
0.4 |
Recreation & Education |
0.1 |
Personal Goods |
0.5 |
Food and non-alcoholic drink index increased by 1.9 per cent in November 2005 compared to October 2005. This was mainly attributed to rise in prices of tomatoes, English potatoes, cabbages, meat and kale (sukuma wiki) on account of prolonged dry weather. On average, a kilogramme of tomatoes was retailing at Kshs 37.30 in November 2005 compared to Kshs 33 in October 2005 an increase of 13.2 per cent.
Fuel and Power index rose by 1.5 per cent in November compared with October due to increase in prices of charcoal, paraffin and electricity.
Prices of other commodities in the Urban Consumer basket were relatively stable in November 2005 compared with October 2005.
Table 2 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories of items in the month of October 2005 compared to last year (September 2004).
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Table 2: One Year Change in Price Indices |
Broad Item Group |
% Change on Previous month |
Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink |
6.2 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
8.6 |
Clothing & Footwear |
3.3 |
Housing Costs |
4.5 |
Fuel & Power |
12.4 |
Household Goods & Services |
5.2 |
Medical Goods and Services |
5.2 |
Transport & Communication |
5.8 |
Recreation & Education |
4.3 |
Personal Goods |
3.9 |
Average All Groups |
6.0 |
Fuel and Power index had the highest increase of 12.4 per cent over the year as a result of rises in prices of cooking gas, paraffin, charcoal and electricity. On average, a litre of kerosene was selling at Kshs 53.30 in November 2005 compared to Kshs 45.90 in November 2004 an increase of 16.1 per cent.
Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics
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