Kenya Inflation Slows to 12-Year Low in September on Food Prices
Kenya’s annual inflation eased in September to the slowest pace in almost 12 years, helped by weaker growth in food and energy prices.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in September from a year earlier, the lowest since December 2012, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday in a statement emailed from the capital, Nairobi.
That was down from 4.4% in August, and below the 4.3% median estimate of four economists in a Bloomberg survey. Prices climbed 0.2% on a monthly basis.
The latest inflation print will influence the central bank’s monetary policy committee when it gathers on Oct. 8.
The MPC surprised markets at its last meeting in August, when it lowered Kenya’s benchmark interest rate for the first time in four years.
At the time, the committee cited expectations for inflation in the near term to remain below the 5% midpoint at which Governor Kamau Thugge prefers to anchor price-growth expectations.
