Kenyans will get a slight reprieve over the next one month after fuel prices came down marginally.
Energy Regulatory Commission ( ERC) yesterday reduced the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene, reversing an upward trend seen over the recent months.
ERC reduced the price of petrol by Sh1.61, diesel by Sh1.08 while kerosene will come down by 55 cents over the period between October 15 and November 14.
The decline has been attributed to decline in price of petroleum products in September as well as stability in the Kenyan shilling against the US dollar.
The energy industry regulator set the maximum retail price of petrol in Nairobi at Sh112.27 down from Sh113.88, diesel Sh104.47 from Sh105.55 and kerosene Sh85.01 from Sh85.56.
“The reduction was a result of a decrease in the average landed cost of imported super petrol, kerosene and diesel and an improvement in the exchange rate by 0.40 per cent,” said a statement by Linus Gitonga, commissioner for petroleum at ERC.
During September, when the products were procured, the shilling changed hands with the dollar at an average of Sh87.10, slightly stronger than Sh87.45 that was the exchange rate in August. Price of crude oil however went up in September to $114.50 per barrel, from $111.70 a barrel in August.
Local retail prices went up three months in a row since June this year, with prices rising to Sh113.88 in September from Sh108.18 in June. The steady climb was on the back of high crude oil prices and a recently introduced Railway Development Levy that charges 1.5 per cent levy on all imported goods.
Cost of living
High fuel prices have partly contributed to the rise in the cost of living in the recent months.
Inflation rate has gone up for the last six months, reaching 8.3 per cent in September, way above the Central Bank target of 5 per cent. Fuel prices impact on all economic sectors, with additional costs ending up being passed to end users of different products and services.
Overall inflation went up once again in the month of September to stand at 8.29 per cent from August’s figure of 6.67 per cent.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics attributed the increase to the rise in indexes among them the food and non-alcoholic drinks that increased by 2.87 per cent due to the implementation of the VAT Act and seasonal factors affecting supply of common food crops.
During the period, kerosene rose from Sh84.79 in August to Sh86.39, representing a 1.9 per cent increase while a litre of petrol rose by 2.0 per cent from Sh112.00 to Sh114.27.
Housing, water, gas and electricity index also rose by 0.87 per cent while transport index increased by 0.77 per cent mainly due to increases in public transport fares that were attributed to prices of petrol and diesel.
By MACHARIA KAMAU, The Standard
