Kenya’s inflation rate fell more than expected in April after food prices eased to a 13-month low.
(Bloomberg) — Kenya’s inflation rate fell more than expected in April after food prices eased to a 13-month low.
Consumer prices rose an annual 7.9%, compared with 9.2% last month, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Friday in an emailed statement. The median estimate of six economists in a Bloomberg survey was 9%, with forecasts ranging from 8.6% to 9.4%. Prices rose 0.5% in the month.
The softening in inflation may allow the monetary-policy authority to hold rates next month following a bigger-than-expected 75-basis point hike in March. The government expects inflation, which has breached the central bank’s 2.5% to 7.5% target-range since June, to revert to the midpoint of the band in the medium term.
Key insights:
- After experiencing its worst drought in 40 years in 2022, various regions in Kenya were forecast to receive near-average rainfall this month, according to the latest weekly report of the government’s National Cereals and Produce Board. That may help ease food price pressures.
- “The first significant harvest of grain is expected to enter the market in August,” Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said Wednesday. “The government has taken the long-term sustainable approach of resolving the cost of living predicament by subsidizing production instead of consumption.”
- Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks, which make up almost a third of the inflation basket, rose an annual 10.1% in April from 13.4% last month, as the cost items such as spinach and onions declined.
- Transport inflation slowed to an eight-month low of 9.8% from 12.9% in March after authorities kept gasoline pump prices unchanged.
–With assistance from Simbarashe Gumbo.
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