Inflation up to 3.4%

Uganda's annual headline inflation has risen to 3.4% during the year ending June 2019 compared to 3.3% recorded during the year ended May 2019, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reads.

CPI measures price changes of goods and services over a given period of time.

Vincent Nsubuga, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) acting director of macroeconomic statistics, attributed the inflation rise to annual core inflation which rose to 4.9% during the year ending June 2019 compared to 4.6% registered for the year ended May 2019.

"The driver for the increase in annual core inflation was annual services inflation such as education, health, hair dressing and entertainment that rose to 4.7% in June 2019 compared to 4% recorded during the period under review," Nsubuga said while addressing the media on Friday at the UBOS offices in Kampala.

He noted that in particular, annual education inflation increased to 6.8% for the year ending June 2019 compared to the 3.6% recorded in May 2019.

In addition, the prices of food crops such as matooke, vegetables, tomatoes and related items like tobacco leaves and milk rose to -3.7% for the year ending June 2019 from the -5.4% registered during the period under review. On average, inflation stands at 177.34%.

Furthermore, annual energy, fuel and utilities recorded to -0.5% for the year ending June 2019 compared to 4.6% recorded for the year ended May 2019.

On the other hand, monthly inflation for June 2019 dropped by 0.1% from the 0.4% rise recorded in May 2019 due to reduction in prices of food crops by 3.5% for the month of June 2019 from the earlier 2.6%  rise recorded in May 2019.