The country’s year-on-year inflation hit a six-month high in November shooting to 5.46 per cent compared to 4.84 per cent in October.
The is the highest cost of living since April this year when inflation hit 5.62 per cent as the country struggled with the increased cost of food and transport as Covid-19 had just hit the country in March.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the percentage change in the price of a basket of goods and services consumed by households, increased by 1.19 per cent from 109.60 in October to 110.91.
The month-to-month food and non-alcoholic drinks’ inflation was 1.54 per cent while the year-on-year food inflation stood at 6.09 per cent.
“This was a net effect of an increase in prices of several food items which outweighed decreases in prices of others,” said KNBS in its monthly statement.
Prices of beef with bones, wheat flour-white and tomatoes increased by 0.99, 0.69 and 0.67 per cent, respectively while those of sifted maize flour, loose maize flour and carrots went down by 1.47,1.52 and 1.11 per cent respectively.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel’s index, increased by 0.07 per cent in November.
The change was mainly due to increases in the cost of some cooking fuels such as gas, and household utilities.
There were however some notable decreases in the cost of kerosene and electricity.
Over the same period, the transport index decreased by 0.15 per cent mainly on account of a decrease in pump prices of diesel and petrol.
The jump on inflation comes amid the Covid-19 impact on the economy, with households feeling the brunt of the pandemic as job losses; pay cuts and low business returns remain a norm.