NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 1 – The inflation rate for the month of July came down to single digits now standing at 7.74 percent, from the previous month’s 10.05 percent, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
The food and non alcoholic drinks index decreased by 1.88 percent between June and July, due to continued price reductions in several food products such as milk, potatoes, maize and spinach.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index decreased by 0.22 percent on account of reduced electricity, kerosene and cooking gas costs.
Over the same period the transport index decreased by 1.35 percent due to lower costs of petrol and diesel.
In this year’s budget speech Finance Minister Njeru Githae said with the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) working toward bringing inflation down to the single digit level, he hopes to keep it at five percent in the medium term.
With this further decline in inflation, all eyes will be on this month’s MPC meeting on its decision on the Central Bank Rate that was cut to the current 16.5 percent in July.
