KAMPALA – The Uganda Bureau of Statistics has revealed that Ugandans were in June charged high prices for some food items compared to May 2020.
This is according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures what Ugandans pay for various goods and services. The June 2020 index comes at a time when the government is systematically easing the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While releasing the CPI for June 2020 on Tuesday, UBOS Director Macro-Economic Statistics Aliziki Kaudha Lubega indicated that prices of peas, oranges, tangerine, lemon, green pepper, eggs, french beans, onions, pork, malewa and unskimmed milk increased in June.
According to figures, prices for peas increased by 10.2 percent, eggs 7.1 percent, oranges, tangerine and lemon 8.4 percent, malewa 2.9 percent, green pepper 7.4 percent, dried angara 8.7 percent, onions 6.4 percent, french beans 6.9 percent, pork 2.9 percent, and un-skimmed milk 2.6 percent.
Kaudha explains that although eggs were selling at 6,000 Shillings in May, the price has increased between 11,000 and 12,000 shillings because Ugandans can now access business and can move following the opening of public transport and movement of private cars.
UBOS also indicates that prices of some items that include fresh okra, tomatoes, tobacco leaves, fresh ginger, beans, vegetables, mangoes, sim sim grains, matooke and pumpkin have reduced.
Asked about the disparity in the prices given that some product prices are going up while others down, Kaudha said prices of some of the goods have decreased because they cannot easily get to their destinations abroad since borders continue to be closed while those with a high demand locally seem to be gaining since the lockdown has been eased.
UBOS also revealed that Jinja and Fort Portal registered the highest headline inflation of 5.74 percent and 5.3 percent in June 2020 respectively. This is compared to the 2.8 percent and 2.2 percent inflation the two cities registered in May 2020. According to Kaudha, this was driven by transport that specifically registered 18.4 percent inflation in June 2020 in Jinja compared to 0.0 percent in May 2020.
He also revealed Gulu as the region registered the least inflation in June 2020. Gulu registered 2.4 percent inflation compared to the 4.0 percent in May.
Meanwhile, the monthly inflation for June 2020 rose by 1.2 percent from the 0.1 percent drop recorded in May 2020.
