Comparing prices and inflation in Nairobi to four and five years ago.
It’s exactly four years since the last election and we are back into campaign mode for an election on August 8. How has life changed since the Jubilee government came to power? There are many reports about economic growth and food inflation, and the budget speech that was read last week had a planned expenditure of Kshs 2.6 trillion (~$25.2 billion) compared to the government’s first budget that was Kshs 1.6 trillion for 2013/14.
On to the index comparing prices of basic urban commodities.
Gotten Cheaper
Finance: Bank loans are 14.0% due to the interest capping law of 2016. The Central Bank of Kenya’s bank supervision annual report for 2014 notes that the average lending rate was 16.99% in December 2013 and 15.98% in December 2014.
Fuel: A liter of petrol is Kshs 101 (~$4.41/gallon) today in Nairobi. It was Kshs. 111.6 per litre in March 2012 and Kshs 117.6 in March 2013.
Cooking Gas: A cylinder of LPG (cooking gas) is Kshs 2,030 today. It was about Kshs. 3,000 ($37) in 2012 for the 13kg cylinder.
Communications: Safaricom dominates. Prices are coming down and both Safaricom and Airtel have combined packages called Flex and Unliminet respectively . With Unliminet, Airtel customers get free WhatsApp, Facebook & Twitter of up to 100MB per day and at Safaricom, every reload of M-PESA gets someone 3 free FLEX units. On the money transfer side, Equitel and Pesalink are driving down the cost of mobile money usage.
About the Same
Beer/Entertainment: A bottle of Tusker beer is Kshs 200 at the local pub. This is the same price it was in March 2013.
Utilities: Pre-paid electricity is about Kshs 2,500 per month which is unchanged from the last review. The calculation of pre-paid tokens remains a complicated exercise.
More Expensive
Staple Food: A 2kg pack of (Unga) Maize flour which is used to make Ugali that is eaten by a majority of Kenyans daily, costs Kshs. 147 up from Kshs 97 in March 2012 and Kshs 105 in March 2013. But in his budget speech last week, the Minister proposed to zero-rate bread and maize flour to remove VAT. “ Manufacturers, Wholesalers, and Retailers who sell such goods will be expected to reduce the prices of these basic commodities, failure to which, I will reverse the policy. In addition to further lower the cost to Wananchi, the importation of maize during the next four months will be duty free. I expect, therefore to see a reduction of prices for these basic commodities which enjoyed by majority of our people.”
Other food item: Sugar: A 2 kg. Mumias Sugar pack is now Kshs 292; it was Kshs 245 in March 2012 and Kshs 250 in March 2013. It has hard to find Mumias sugar which is going through some issues, so this is the price of Chemelil sugar at the supermarket.
Foreign Exchange: 1 US$ equals Kshs. about Ksh 103 today compared to Kshs 83 in March 2012 and Kshs 85 in March 2013.
Utility: Water in Nairobi is more expensive.