Uganda’s inflation has been recorded at 4.5% from 4.6% last month.
While releasing the consumer price index report for the month of September, the principal statistician at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Sam Kaisiromwe , noted that the decline is attributed to a gradual reduction in prices of food stuffs.
‘The prices of food crops continue to go down and they have now reached to minus 6.2% for year ending September 2020 compared to minus 5.4 registered in August.’
Looking at food crops, vegetable inflation decreased to minus 3.7% compared to the rise in August when they were registered at 0.4%.
‘Still with food crops, inflation of fruits is seen to be going up a bit to minus 8.9 % in September compared to minus 12.3% in August’, he said.
At sectoral level, transport registered the highest inflation of 27.7% in September, followed by clothing and foot wear that registered 2.5% compared to 1.9% in August.
The least inflation was seen in food and non-alcoholic beverages that resisted 0.2% compared to 1.7% in August. Restaurants and Hotels registered 1.2% compared to 1.6% last month, and communication registered 1.3% compared to 1.4% in August.
Regionally, the basket of Kampala High Income recorded the highest inflation of 5.5% in September compared to 4.5% in August. This was followed by Kampala Middle income that registered 5.2% for September compared to 5.5% in August.
Gulu region and its surroundings registered the lowest inflation of 2.6% compared to 3.4% in August.In all regions transport inflation remains high according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
Monthly, Month on Month inflation rose by 0.7% compared to 0.3% rise in August.
Some of the items that increased in prices include, cooking bananas, mangoes, taxi fares for shared short distances, citrus fruits, dried cassava, pumpkins, whole cassava and fish specifically Nile perch.
However during the month of September Maize flour prices went down, liquefied gas, round onions, cabbages, fresh beans, eggplants, bitter tomatoes and tomatoes also registered price reductions.
In the Residential Property Price Index, which measures the prices of houses within greater Kampala metropolitan area, different geographical areas contribute to the index .
Wakiso contributes 39.5% of the total stock of houses on sale, Kampala and Makindye around 23.7%,Kawempe and Rubaga around 23.3% and lastly Nakawa at 13.4% of the houses.
The results indicate that the index declined to 10.1% for Q1 compared to 10.5 in Q4 of the last financial year.
The decline was due to residential properties in Kampala and Makindye areas that declined to 6.5% for Q1 of 2020/21 compared to 25.2% registered in the previous quarter.However Nakawa prices increased to 26.4% in Q1 compared to 20.1% registered in Q4.
In addition Wakiso prices of houses also increased to 13.0% for the year ending Q1 of 2020/21 compared to 5.1% in the last quarter.