Uganda consumer prices rose 4.8% in October

Uganda consumer prices rose in October by the least in eleven months, as a slowdown in education fees brought down services inflation.

The Consumer Prices Index – the headline measure of inflation – grew by 4.8 in the year to October, down from 5.3% in September, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

The slowdown in inflation came primarily from the movement of services and food prices. Annual services inflation slowed to 2.3% compared to the 4.1% recorded last month. This saw core inflation rise 3.5% year-on-year, down from September’s 4.2%.

Prices of education services rose by 2.6% compared to the same month last year, down from 7.8% in September. This was due to a decline in both annual pre-primary and primary inflation, and annual secondary education inflation; tuition fees for those sections have usually been settled by October, which explains the drop.

Food crops prices rose at a slower 7.8% over the past year, versus the 9.6% recorded for the year ended September. Annual vegetables inflation came in at 6.5% from last month’s 8.5%, while fruits inflation was 9.7% versus 10.9% in the previous month.

Annual energy, fuels, and utilities inflation rose by 14.1%, higher than September’s 10.6% increase. “This was due to annual inflation for solid fuels (charcoal and firewood) that increased to 25.0% for the year ending October 2017 compared to 15.0% recorded for the year ended September 2017,” Ubos said. “However, liquid energy fuels inflation declined to 5.3% for the year ending October 2017 compared to 5.5% recorded in September 2017.”

On a monthly basis, headline inflation increased by 0.3%, slower than September’s 1.0% rise. Energy, fuel and utilities inflation rose 1.8% versus 3.7% in September, while the prices of food crops and related items increased by 0.2% compared to the 4.6% rise in September. Core inflation was 0.2%, slightly higher than the 0.1% in the past month.