The high cost of living has emerged as the first real test for new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Kamau Thugge’s tenure, going by the regulator’s swift move to raise the base lending rate in a bid to arrest a new round of price increases in the economy.
Dr Thugge sought to explain on Tuesday that an unexpected jump in non-food-non-fuel inflation—otherwise known as core inflation—in May was primarily behind the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision on Monday to raise the base lending rate by 100 basis points to a seven-year high of 10.5 percent.
