On the year-over-year basis, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased 3.57 percent from 2.93 percent in the previous month, with tomatoes recording the highest increase (39.54 percent) and potatoes registering the biggest drop (7 percent). Prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels grew by 4.21 percent in April from 4.82 recorded in March. Clothing and footwear prices increased by 5.51 percent from 5.48 percent in the previous month. The transport index rose 4.6 percent from 6.14 percent in March. Communication index, on the other hand, decreased 0.15 percent in April.
On the month-over-month basis, the inflation rate slowed to 0.95 percent, from 1.01 in March. Food and non alcoholic drinks’ index increased by 1.85 percent, as a result of increases in food items such as tomatoes, beef, potatoes and sugar. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ index went up by 0.31 percent between March and April of 2013, mainly due to modest increases in costs of house rents and cooking fuels like charcoal. The Transport Index increased by 0.20 per cent over the review period mainly on account of high taxi charges and bus/matatu fares which were observed despite lower costs of diesel.