Inflation soars to 3.5% from 3%

ECONOMY

Uganda's annual headline inflation for the year ending April 2019 has increased to 3.5% compared to 3% recorded during the year ended March 2019.

The figures were released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS) in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on Tuesday.

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

John Mayende, the acting director of macroeconomic statistics at UBoS, said the increase in annual headline inflation was largely due to annual core inflation, which rose to 4.8% for the year ending April 2019 compared to 4.6% registered for the year ended March 2019.

In particular, the prices of fish increased to 3.4% from the 2.4% recorded under the period under review.

Mayende said annual transport services inflation increased to 6.8% for the year ending April 2019 compared to 5.4% recorded in March 2019 due to increase in passenger transport by road.

Food crops and related items inflation increased to minus 6.2% compared to minus 9.9% due to increase in prices of fruits and vegetables.

Furthermore, annual energy, fuel and utilities (EFU) inflation rose up to 5.4% from 5.3%.

"In the last couple of months, we have seen fuel prices hike and floods in some part of the country that have increased transport costs and these factors have resulted in high food prices," financial expert Stephen Kaboyo said.