Rwandans were able to buy more goods with their disposable income last month, thanks to a general drop in prices. According to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released yesterday, the country’s inflation slowed to 0.7 per cent year-on-year in February, down from 1.4 per cent recorded in January 2015. Rwanda uses CPI to measure the average change (over time) of a basket of selected goods and services bought by households. The drop in the inflation was driven by a decline in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as low transport fees, the report indicates. However, people had to dig deeper into the pockets to pay housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels bills, which rose by 3.6 per cent, bread and cereals rose by 7.1 per cent compared to a decline of 0.7 in January. Milk lovers also felt the pinch as prices went up by 2.9 per cent compared to a 0.4 per cent drop the previous month, according to the NISR report. The cost of transport declined by 4.3 per cent, according the report. The underlying inflation rate (excluding fresh food and energy) rose by 0.1 per cent when compared to January, and increased by 1.6 per cent compared to February 2014.
