Kenya to start publishing core inflation data to boost targeting

The statistics bureau has been focusing on headline inflation in its monthly releases, including volatile components such as food and fuel, forcing the central bank to disaggregate the data and work out the non-food and non-fuel inflation.

"It (core inflation) is a more reliable measure of inflation commonly used by central banks to inform monetary policy decisions and communication with the public," the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said.

"It has become imperative to have an official comprehensive measure of core inflation for Kenya."

Policymakers argue it is hard to attain price stability in the economy using monetary tools when the food and fuel components of inflation are included since they are usually driven by supply side factors such as weather, which are beyond their control.