High fuel prices take toll on economy
Despite Uganda’s economy having registered a drop in the annual inflation from 3.3% to 3.0% between the months of December 2017 and January 2018, the increasing global fuel market prices have taken a toll on the economy.
According to the monthly consumer index report released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, energy, fuel and utilities inflation increased by 0.8% in January from 0.3% in December.
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Since the beginning of the year, fuel prices have been increasing day by day with current petrol prices shs 3900 per litre and diesel shs 3250 per litre at most of the fuel pumps.
The has increased the transport inflation to 3.0% from 2.6% that was registered in December.
"As Uganda we have nothing to do if the prices increase internationally and always the distributors pass the increment to buyers," said Sam Kaisiromwe, a senior statistician at UBOS.
Apart from transport costs increasing, food inflation has increased to 3.0% from the 2.6% that was recorded in December.
“The increase has been mostly seen in vegetables mostly cabbages, carrots and potatoes because most of these were consumed in December and currently farmers are just replanting," said Samuel Echoku, a principal statistician at UBOS.
But the good news is that the drop in inflation has been attributed to the reduced sugar prices that were recorded at -4.0% in January from 5.0% that was recorded in the year ending December 2017.
