Drought and high fuel prices driving inflation in East Africa

[Barrett808]

Rising inflation is threatening East Africa Community's economic growth.

From Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and Kampala, all signs point to surging inflation in the region in the coming days. An array of issues from drought to food scarcity to escalating oil prices continue to pile pressure on households' expenditure.

Political crises in Arab North Africa and Middle East countries have caused fuel prices to shoot up, raising inflation in the past few weeks because the cost of oil, a major export of Middle East countries, has been going up.

With the cost of energy expected to come under intense pressure in the coming months as the political crisis in oil-producing Libya and the Arab world persists, and dry weather piles pressure on food prices, inflation too is expected to remain on the upward trend, to become the biggest threat to EAC's fragile economies.

Consumer prices inflation in Kenya rose to 6.54 per cent in February from 5.42 per cent in January -- moving further away from the official target of below five per cent. ...

Drought and high fuel prices driving inflation in East Africa