Consumer Prices Indexes (CPI) and Inflation Rates for the Month of March 2007

The Central Bureau of Statistics is pleased to release the Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for the month of March 2007, for your information and use. This data is generated through monthly data collection from retail outlets in 13 urban centres in Kenya . The data is perceived to be representative of the spending behaviour of Kenyan urban households. The price data is collected in the second and third week of the month of review in the selected retail outlets. This is in order to maintain consistency in price variations. Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.8 per cent from 223.6 points in February 2007 to 225.3 points in March 2007. Month-on-month overall inflation rate decelerated from 6.8 per cent in February 2007 to 5.9 per cent in March 2007. On the other hand, month-on-month underlying inflation rate which excludes food items from the CPI basket remained at 6.1 per cent in March 2007 as the previous month. Prices of some food commodities declined in March 2007 compared to March 2006 and thus the low inflation rates. In the first quarter of 2006, prices of foodstuffs were high due to drought.