Rwanda’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation rate increased by 2.8 per cent year-on-year in June 2015 compared to 1.4 percent in the same period 2014, a report by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) released yesterday indicates.

The increase is mainly attributed to the rising prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages which increased by 2.9 per cent according to the report.

The underlying inflation rate, excluding fresh food and energy, according to the report, increased by 0.4 percent year on year and 3.0 per cent during the month of June.

The government is projecting Inflation rate to reach 3.5 per cent by the end of 2015 which will be contained to at least below 5 per cent in the medium term as anticipated by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR).

However, despite the  efforts to contain inflation, the report indicated a steady  and gradual increase, especially in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels which increased by 4.5 per cent.

And according to Sebastien Manzi, Director of Economic Statistics department at NISR, the transport sector registered 1.5 per cent, on an annual basis while local goods index increased by 2.6 per cent and imported goods by 3.3 percent during the month of June.

Meanwhile, the inflation rate for fresh products increased by 2.6 percent and energy by 0.9 per cent.

This therefore means that Rwanda’s core (the personal consumption expenditure) index, excluding fresh products and energy, increased by 3.0 per cent.

The monthly index remained stable at 0.01 percent during the month of June 2015 despite food and non-alcoholic beverages’ decreasing by 1.2 percent. This according to the report resulted into an average underlying inflation rate of 2.4 per cent.

And on a monthly basis, the local goods index decreased by 0.3 percent; the imported goods index increased by 0.9 percent, fresh products decreased by 1.8 percent, energy increased by 0.4 percent  with  the core index increasing by 0.4 per cent.