Laundry soap and refined cooking oil drive down inflation

The monthly inflation as measured by the consumer price index for Uganda in April 2023 registered a drop to 8 per cent from 9 per cent registered in March.

This was mainly attributed to laundry soap inflation which registered minus 6 per cent in April compared to 4.4 per cent registered in March, and refined cooking oil inflation registered minus 9 per cent in April compared to 2.8 per cent registered in March the same year.

While releasing the findings on Friday, Mr Edgar Niyimpa, the principal statistician microeconomics at Uganda Bureau of Statistics, said other drivers of the slowdown of inflation were energy fuels and utility inflation which slowed down to 2.1 per cent in April compared to 4.4 per cent in March.

According to him, this was mainly due to solid fuels inflation that registered 6 per cent in April compared to 7.2 per cent in March.

“In particular, charcoal inflation registered 2.5 per cent in April compared to 7.7 per cent in March in addition to petrol inflation which slowed down to -2.9 per cent in April compared to 0.2 per cent in March,” he said.

He said food crops and related items inflation also slowed down to 25.3 per cent in April compared to 26.7 per cent registered in March 2023.

He noted that this was mainly due to whole cassava inflation that registered 51.7 per cent in April compared to 65.8 per cent registered in March.

Also, tomato inflation was registered at 26.3 per cent in April compared to 33.3 per cent in March and eggplant and bitter tomatoes inflation registered 13 per cent in April compared to 30.1 per cent in March same year.

Mr Ninyimpa added that also non-alcoholic beverages inflation dropped to 18.5 per cent in April from 20.9 per cent in March. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels inflation was registered at 2.2 per cent in April compared 4.2 per cent in March.

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