The Uganda Bureau of statistics (UBOS) Consumers Price Index (CPI) report for August 2019 has recorded the annual headline inflation (total inflation) for the year ending August 2019 at 2.1% compared to the 2.6% recorded during the year ended July 2019.
The report indicated the decline in Annual Headline inflation is largely attributed to the Annual Core Inflation, which dropped to 2.7 percent for the year ending August 2019 compared to the 3.5 percent registered for the year ended July 2019
While releasing the report on Friday 30th August 2019 at UBOS headquarters, Vincent Nsubuga, the UBOS Principal Statistician in charge of prices said the driver for the decrease in Annual Core inflation was particularly caused by the decrease in annual inflation for clothing, footwear, sugar and services.
“The driver for the decrease in Annual Core inflation was Annual Other Goods Inflation that declined to 3.5 percent for the year ending August 2019 compared to the 4.5 percent recorded for the year ended July 2019. In particular, Annual Inflation for Clothing and Footwear decreased to 4.6 percent for the year ending August 2019 compared to the 5.4 percent recorded in July 2019. Also, the Annual Inflation for Sugar declined to minus 13.4 percent for the year ending August 2019 compared to the minus 4.2 percent recorded for the year ended July 2019,” he said.
While comparing the monthly inflation rates, Nsubuga said that the Monthly Headline Inflation for August 2019 has increased by 0.4 percent from the 0.4 percent drop recorded in July 2019 which he said was attributed to the Monthly Food Crops and Related Items Inflation that increased by1.1 percent for the month of August 2019 from the earlier 4.2 percent drop recorded in July 2019 including an increase in the inflation of Fruits.
The CPI report according to UBOS Executive Director, Chris N. Mukiza provides the monthly Consumer Price Indices for the ten baskets of Kampala High Income, Kampala Middle Income, Kampala Low Income, Jinja, Mbale, Masaka, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Gulu and Arua.
He added that all the baskets are for the urban households and that the rebased CPI is now classified using international standards, referred to as Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP).
By Drake Nyamugabwa
