Inflation increases to 3.2 per cent

The increase in the price of assorted items has pushed headline inflation to 3.2 per cent for the year ended April, according to data released by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) last week.

Inflation for the year ended March stood at 3 per cent. This was ahead of government’s instituted measures that sought to fight the spread of Covid-19, which was first confirmed in the country on March 22.

The measures have seen a rise in prices of some locally and imported products. Last week, Ubos said the increase in headline inflation was largely driven by annual core inflation, which rose to 3.4 per cent in April from 2.5 per cent in March.

Ms Kaudha Aliziki Lubega, the Ubos director macroeconomic statistics, said the increase in core inflation was due to annual other goods inflation, which rose to 5 per cent in April 2020 compared to 3.5 per cent in March.

In particular, she said, maize flour inflation increased to 37 per cent in April from 32.7 per cent in March.

Rice inflation increased to 7.4 per cent in April compared to 0.3 per cent in March, while clothing and footwear inflation increased to 3.1 per cent from 3 per cent in the period under review.

Fall in services inflation

However, according to Ms Aliziki, services inflation fell from 1.2 per cent in March to 1 per cent in April due to restrictions in movement of both public and private motorists and the general fall in demand of a variety of other services.

Food crops and related items inflation fell to -2 per cent in April from 2.5 per cent in March while fruits inflation fell to -12.6 per cent compared -3.7 per cent in the period.

Energy Fuel and Utilities inflation increased to 8.3 per cent in April from 7.7 per cent in March.

However, petrol inflation decelerated to -8.2 per cent from 8.8 per cent in March.
Bank of Uganda uses core inflation for monetary policy targets that seeks to keep inflation below 5 per cent.