Kenyan Inflation Quickens in June as Food, Transport Costs Surge

(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan inflation quickened in June as food and transport prices surged from a year ago.

The inflation rate rose to 5.7% from 5.5% in May, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Friday in an emailed statement. Prices fell 0.7% in the month.

Key Insights:

• The price of food and non-alcoholic drinks -- which make up more than a third of the inflation basket -- rose 7% in June from a year earlier. Costs are being pushed up by a drought that could leave 2 million people in need of food aid by next month. While food costs dropped 1.6% compared with May, rising fuel prices and last year’s low base will continue to underpin inflation.
• Kenya may import 1.3 million tons of corn in the 12 months starting July, more than double the previous year’s purchases, boosting food supply and helping to suppress food-price growth.
• The Central Bank of Kenya has an inflation target of 5% with a margin of 2.5 percentage points on either side and has managed to keep price growth within this range since September 2017 even as it cut interest rates.

--With assistance from Jacqueline Mackenzie.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Herbling in Nairobi at dherbling@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Paul Richardson

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