Inflation rises to 5.4%

Uganda's inflation has slightly increased to 5.4% in May compared to 5.1% that was recorded in April 2016. 

Addressing journalists on Tuesday at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) House, Chris Mukiza, UBOS director, macro-economic statistics, attributed the slight increase to the rise in annual core inflation to 7% from 6.4% that was recorded in April. 

Annual core inflation which excludes food, fuel, electricity and metered water prices which are volatile to price changes increased due to rise in other goods and services. 

"The prices of other goods and services such as sugar, education, health, financial and legal services contributed to May inflation," Mukiza said.

However, he noted that there was a decrease in the prices of food crops, fruits and vegetables and energy, fuel and utilities (EFU). 

EFU decreased from 6.5% to 5.6% for the period under review. 

Fuel costs are between shs2920 and shs3300 at different petrol stations in Uganda. 

"It is now cheaper to buy to buy matooke, nakati and bbuga," Mukiza noted. 

A bunch of the above vegetables costs about sh500 to sh2000 from different market places. 

On inflation by geographical centre, Arua recorded the highest inflation, followed by Masaka and then by Kampala high income. 

This was attributed to the high cost of clothes in all centres. 

On a monthly basis, inflation rose by 0.2% in May from 0.1% recorded in April.