Inflation figures raise more queries than answers

The more fundamental question is the fact that crafters of the new CPI index have contrary to the global practice completely blurred the distinction between headline and underlying inflation that reflects the performance of monetary policy.

In an environment like ours where monetary policy is increasingly being ignored by private sector players and targeted at facilitating government borrowing, phasing this figure out has only eased pressure of probity from the Central Bank of Kenya – an advantage that its peers elsewhere do not enjoy.

It may be irritating that these questions continue to arise nearly a year after the new inflation figures were introduced, but the KNBS must know that this is a subject whose examination can only intensify especially under the new constitutional dispensation in which citizens have been granted the right to know.