The slight decrease in transport fares for the short distance below 50 kilometres has pushed down annual headline inflation to 3.7 per cent, according to data from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos). 

Inflation for the period ended November dropped from 4.5 per cent in October 2020 on the back of a slight drop in the cost of public transport fares, which is a fundamental factor in the cost of goods and services. 

While releasing the Consumer Price Index for the period ended November, Ms Aliziki Kaudha Lubega, the Ubos director macroeconomic statistics, said transport fares, especially for shorter distances, had dropped by 6 per cent while those for longer distances had not changed.  

During the period annual core inflation declined from 6.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent due to the decrease in annual services inflation to 11.1 per cent from 11.8 per cent in October.  

Ms Aliziki said specifically, transport services inflation declined to 60.4 per cent for the period ended November compared to 64 per cent in October. 

Other goods inflation declined to 2.2 per cent from 2.6 per cent while food crops and related items inflation decelerated to - 7.3 per cent from - 6.1 per cent in October. 

This, she said, was mainly due to annual inflation for vegetables that dropped to - 5.1 per cent from - 2.8 per cent in October.  

Annual fruits inflation remained at - 9.9 per cent while food crops such as banana, maize flour continued to register low prices. 

Ubos data indicate that in particular, annual inflation for bananas decreased to - 22.77 per cent in November compared to - 21.2 per cent in October.   

Annual Energy Fuel and Utilities (EFU) inflation in November declined to - 1.4 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent in October.