Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has asked Ugandans to rationalize their spending, as the new report indicates an increase in the month-to-month inflation rates.
The new UBOS inflation report, for the year ending September 2023, indicates that the inflation rate has risen to 0.7 percent, up from the 0.6 that was recorded last month, though at a slower pace.
While releasing the report, on Friday at the UBOS offices in Kampala, Aliziki Lubega the UBOS director for Macroeconomics monitoring, said that the year-to-year inflation shows a decline of 2.7 percent from 3.5 percent recorded for the year ending September 2022.
According to Lubega, though the pace of increment is not so fast, it is still an increase and it is not desirable, therefore rationalization is required.
According to the report, the month-to-month increase was reflected in all the sample categories of the report and these are the food crops and related Items, which was mainly because of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulse.
Other categories that increased on a month to month, are services inflation, as well as Energy Fuel and Utilities (EFU). Sampled goods prices from the month-to-month inflation, the report shows beef at 14,217 shillings from 14,026, petrol at 5,384 up from 4977, diesel at 4,976 from 4,803, and rice at 5,074 from 5,065.
From the released consumer price index (CPI) report, the slowdown in the annual overhead inflation has been largely attributed to the annual core inflation which slowed down at a rate of 2.4 percent down from 3.3 percent, as recorded in the year ending August 2023.
The report further shows that the reason behind the slow ready of any core inflation is the reduced price increment rate in goods like rice, Mekene, sugar, maize flour, as well as those of annual services, and restaurants, and accommodation services. Other drivers for the slowdown are the reduced rate of annual food crops and related items inflation, these include Beans, fresh cassava, bananas, and mangoes.
“Annual other goods inflation stood at 5.2 percent from 17.8 for rice, -5.4 percent from 22.3 percent for mukene, -3.8 percent from 1.0 percent for maize flour, and 34.0 percent from 43.2 percent for sugar,” reads part of the report.
For food crops and related items, the report shows beans at 8.0 percent from 20.1, mangoes at 3.5 from 26.1, matooke at -3.3 from 2.4, and cassava at 6.0 from 18.9 percent.
Whereas, the energy fuels and utilities, also registered a growth from -2.7 percent to -1.2 percent, due to the increased rates in petrol, and diesel prices, however, charcoal recorded a decrease. For goods in the category of classification of individual consumption according to purpose, a rate of 2.7 percent was recorded lower than the 3.5 percent that was recorded in the year ending August 2023.
URN.