The Central Bureau of Statistics is pleased to release the Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for the month of December 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 1.8 per cent from 182.0 points in November 2005 to 185.2points in December 2005. Month-on-month overall inflation rate increased from 6.0 per cent in November 2005 to 7.6 per cent in December 2005. On the other hand, month-on-month underlying inflation rate which excludes food items from the CPI basket also rose marginally from 5.8 per cent to 6.0 per cent.
Table 1 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories in December 2005 compared to November 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 |
2.7 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
0.2 |
Clothing & Footwear |
0.3 |
Housing Costs |
1.2 |
Fuel & Power |
0.2 |
Household Goods & Services |
0.3 |
Medical Goods and Services |
0.9 |
Transport & Communication |
0.8 |
Recreation & Education |
0.0 |
Personal Goods |
0.2 |
Food and non-alcoholic drink index increased by 2.7 per cent in December 2005 compared to November 2005. This was mainly attributed to rise in prices of cabbages, Kale (Sukuma wiki) , tomatoes, English potatoes and oranges. On average, a kilogramme of Kale was retailing at Kshs 24.45 in December 2005 compared to Kshs 22.70 in November 2005 an increase of 7.7 per cent. During the same period, the average price of a kilogramme of tomatoes rose from Kshs 38.20 in November to Kshs 41.00 in December.
Housing Costs increased by 1.2 per cent in December 2005 compared to November 2005.
Transport and Communications index rose by 0.8 per cent in December compared to November 2005 due to increased public transport fares.
Table 2 shows percentage changes in indices of broad categories of items in the month of December 2005 compared to last year (December 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 |
8.8 |
Alcohol & Tobacco |
9.2 |
Clothing & Footwear |
3.1 |
Housing Costs |
5.5 |
Fuel & Power |
11.2 |
Household Goods & Services |
4.7 |
Medical Goods and Services |
5.3 |
Transport & Communication |
6.5 |
Recreation & Education |
4.3 |
Personal Goods |
4.0 |
Average All Groups |
7.6 |
Over the last twelve months, Fuel and Power index had the highest increase of 11.2 per cent. This was attributed to sharp rises in the prices of kerosene and cooking gas. A litre of paraffin was selling at an average price of Kshs 53.44 in December 2005 compared to Kshs 46.00 in December 2004 an increase of 16.1 per cent. A 13 kg cylinder of cooking gas was retailing at an average price of Kshs 1,522 in December 2005 compared to Kshs 1,229 in December 2004 a rise of 23.8 per cent.
Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics |