NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s annual inflation rate rose slightly in October, with price rises for fuel, transport and food important contributors, data from the statistics agency showed on Tuesday.
Inflation reached 6.9% year-on-year in October, up from 6.8% a month earlier.
On a month-on-month basis inflation was 1.0%, the same as in September, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
In mid-October the country’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority announced a rise in prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene for the month ahead.
Fuel prices make a big contribution to inflation in the east African nation as it relies heavily on diesel for transport, power generation and agriculture, while kerosene is used in many households for cooking and lighting.
The statistics office said the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels index was up 1.9% in October compared with a month earlier, while the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index was up 1.3% from September. The Transport Index was up 1.5%, the statistics office said.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning and Jonathan Oatis)
