Rwanda’s urban Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased to 3.8 per cent on annual basis in September, from 3.2 per cent registered the previous month, the statistics body has indicated in its monthly report. The increase was mainly due to 8.3 per cent rise in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, and 2.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent increase of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, and transport, respectively, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda CPI report released yesterday.

Rwanda uses urban CPI to measure the average change over time of goods and services bought by households. The inflation rate was up 1.1 per cent month-on-month, while the annual average rate between September 2016 and September 2017 was 6.1 per cent. Rural households had to dig deeper into their pockets last month as the cost of goods and services rose by 8.9 per cent year-on-year, and increased 1.9 per cent on a monthly basis, both of which are higher than what was recorded in urban centres. The underlying inflation rate, excluding fresh food and energy, decreased by 0.1 per cent when compared to August 2017, but was up 2.6 per cent year-on-year. The Rwanda CPI increased by 7.1 per cent on an annual basis, and increased by 1.5 per cent on a monthly basis, NISR indicates.