Uganda's January inflation down by 0.1%

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Uganda s Monthly Head line inflation has decline by 0.1% for the month of January 2014 as compare to the rise of 0.1% rise in December 2013 thanks to the good supply of food crop related items in the country.

According to senior officers at the country’s Bureau of Statistics the country had good supply of food related items on the market this led to the traders cutting the price for food and other related items on the market country wide

According to Dr Chris Mukiiza the Director of Macroeconomics at UBOS, the country monthly food inflation which includes price for maize flour fish sugar and refined cooking oil went down in most centers “This reduction in the price of the commodities is attributed to the increased supplies of these items on the market how ever there was an increase in price of other food related items like sweet potatoes fresh cassava cabbages on the market” he explained

Because of the good supply of food related items inflation in most centers went down although in other centers the price trend was still high for example Arua town registered the lowest inflation rate of about 1.4% from the 0.1 rise in Decembers 2013 Masaka and Jinja also had moderate one at 8.7% inflation

The improvement in the supplies of food related items can also be attributed to the conflicts in the Southern Sudan which used to be leading market for food related items from Uganda According to Mr Mukasa Bosco former Agro Business trader in Southern Sudan told the East African Business Week that since the insurgency broke out in the newly African state many Ugandan trades have stopped exporting Agriculture related products to southern Sudan thus improving the supply on the local market.

On the non-food items the country registered increases in prices for commodities like fire wood and Pharmaceutical related products but with also reduction in the price of beverage drinks petrol cement and new clothes.

Sector players in the beverage related products attributes the reduction in the prices on soda products on the high competition on the market following the entries of other producers( Riham beverages ) on the Ugandan market this has compelled the international beverage s producers like Crown beverages ( pepsi )Century beverages to lower the prices of their products on the market.

Comparing Inflation on Annually Basis Mukiiza noted that the Annually Headline inflation rate for the year ending January 2014 rose up by 0.2%(6.9%) compared to the 6.7% that was recorded for the year ended December 2013 this was due to the increase of the Annually food inflation which was high by 21.4% for the year ending January 2014 as compared to the 12.7% for the year ended December 2013

By Sam Nabwiiso, Monday, February 03rd, 2014


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