Rwanda’s consumer price index (CPI) was at 1.9 per cent in July compared to 3.5 per cent during the same period last year. However, this was an increase month-on-month from 1.4 per cent in June, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) monthly CPI report released yesterday indicates.

The increase is largely attributed to the rise of food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, Oscar Sibomana, the NISR principal research statistician in charge of prices, said. 

Prices for food and beverages increased by 2.4 per cent, while education increased by 7.1 per cent. 

Underlying inflation rate, excluding fresh food and energy, increased by 0.3 per cent compared to 0.6 per cent last month, and rose by 2.3 per cent compared to July 2013. 

The annual average underlying inflation rate currently was at 3.2 per cent, the report indicated.

The biggest negative contribution came from transport 0.4 percentage points, the report indicates. 

The monthly change in CPI was 0.3 per cent compared to June 2014. Food and non-alcoholic beverages and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 0.5 and 0.2 per cent, respectively. 

During the month, local goods increased by 2.3 per cent on annual change with a monthly change of 0.1 per cent while  imported products increased  by 0.8 per cent on annual change with a monthly change of 0.9 per cent. 

The prices of fresh products had a positive annual change of 2.2 per cent during July.