March inflation at 3%

KAMPALA - Data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) indicates that annual headline inflation for the year ending March 2019 has been recorded at 3.%.  It is the same rate recorded during the year that ended February 2019, reads a consumer price indices (CPI) report.

CPI measures price changes of goods and services over a given period of time. The report is released monthly by UBOS.

"This is largely attributed to the annual core inflation, which increased to 4.6% from the year ending March 2019 compared to 3.7% registered during the year in February 2019," said  Vincent Musoke Nsubuga, UBOS Principal Statistician in charge of price statistics.

Speaking to the media at the bureau offices in Kampala on Friday, Nsubuga attributed the increase in core inflation to increase in prices of clothing and footwear, alcoholic beverages and tobacco and services such as transport and hairdressing.

On the other hand, the report indicates that monthly headline inflation for March 2019 has been recorded at 0.5% from the 0.3% recorded in February 2019.

He noted that this was largely driven by monthly other goods and services (which are not affected seasonally) such as bread, cereal, oil & fats, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate, mineral water, soft drinks, clothing  and footwear and beddings increased by 1.4% during the month of March 2019 from 0.0% recorded for the month of February 2019.

Furthermore, monthly food crops registered 3.2% drop from the earlier 2.1% rise recorded in February due to monthly fruits inflation that registered a minus 11.9% from the 0.1% rise recorded during the period under review.