Rwanda’s inflation rate increased by close to two percentage points during the month of November driven by increasing food and non-alcoholic drinks prices, the National Institute of Statistics monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released yesterday indicates. 

According to the statistics body, urban inflation surged to 4.8 per cent year-on-year in November compared to 2.9 per cent last month. It rose by 1.1 per cent on a monthly basis.

The annual average rate between November 2014 and November 2015 was 2.3 per cent. Rwanda uses CPI to measure the average change in prices over time of goods and services bought by households.

NISR indicates that the increase was mainly driven by rising food and non-alcoholic beverage prices that grew by 10.5 per cent, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels that rose 3.6 per cent, while cost of transport was up 2 per cent. Vegetables, which contribute 10 per cent to the overall weights (100 per cent), went up 22.5 per cent in November, the highest during the period. Food and non-alcoholic drinks have a weight of 28 per cent.

The underlying inflation rate (excluding fresh food and energy) increased by 0.8 per cent compared to the previous month, but rose by 2.3 per cent on annual basis.

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