Uganda’s Annual Headline Inflation for August declines to 4.6 percent

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) yesterday released Consumer Price Index (CPI) statistics for August 2020 showing a decline in Annual Headline Inflation of 4.6 percent compared to 4.7 percent recorded in July in the same year. The CPI highlights the trends of Inflation across the country, on the different products.

The decline in Annual Headline Inflation according to UBOS is largely attributed to Annual Energy Fuel Utilities (EFU) Inflation that decreased to 4.3% in August compared to 6.6% in July 2020 mainly due to solid Fuels Inflation of 13.4 percent registered in August compared to 20.6 percent for July. Charcoal Inflation decreased to 13.6 percent in August  from 20.9 in July,  Liquid Energy Fuels to minus 3.7 percent in August from minus 4.4 percent in July while Petrol recorded minus 5.5 percent in August compared to -6.4 percent in July.

According to data by the statistics agency, the highest inflation was registered amongst the Kampala Middle income people, with 5.5% inflation in August compared to the 4.8% registered in July. In Jinja and Masaka, inflation was registered at 5.4% in August compared to 5.2% in July while Fort Portal registered 3.1%

In Kampala, the Capital City, the increase in Inflation was due to transport that registered a 38.9 percent for the year ending August 2020 compared to 34.4 percent or July 2020. Meanwhile Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages increased to 1.4 percent for August compared to 0.3 registered in July.

In Jinja and Masaka that recently got City statuses, Annual Headline Inflation stood at 5.4 percent compared to 5.6 and 5.2 percent in July respectively. The figure is also driven by transport that registered 19.1 and 22.5 percent for year ending August 2020 compared to 18.7 percent and 17.9 percent for July respectively. Food and Non Alcoholic Beverages Inflation in the two cities increased to 3.4 and 4.1 percent for August compared to 3.1 and 3.5 for July respectively.

Fort Portal, also one of the newly created Cities registered a decline in Annual Headline Inflation of 3.1 percent for August compared to 4.1 percent for July largely driven by Food and Non Alcoholic Beverages whose Inflation registered at minus 1.9 percent for August compared to 0.3 percent for July 2020.

Meanwhile, the Annual Food Crops and related Items Inflation increased to -5.4 percent in August 2020 compared to -5.5 percent in July 2020. Annual Fruits Inflation increased to -12.3 percent in August, July was -12.6 percent.