Nuff said. Nothing to add.

... and april inflation data is coming in today. Another factor to watch closely

@Selah, where did you read that provision for bad loans is increasing. The financial statements are showing the exact opposite

how is inflation down to 13% yet the prices of basic commodities is going up!!

@kyt What prices went up during Apri??

Most of the price rises are less than 13%.. The official numbers are just a weighted average

Kyt has a point. The YoY inflation continued to decrease due to the base effect in the inflation computation.

The average price of the basket of goods used in calculating inflation increased by 0.92% (month on month – from 132.51 in March 2012 to 133.74 in April 2012) and increased by 13.06% (year on year – from 118.29 in April 2011 to 133.74 in April 2012).

It’s worth noting that the prices of goods have been increasing since time immemorial (check Consumer Price Index). In the fiscal year ending in June 2012, the aim is to have 9% inflation. The Long term target is to have 5% inflation. A low and steady inflation is good for a developing country like Kenya, so embrace higher prices if increase is low and steady.

@guru, c/p

http://www.knbs.or.ke/cpi/cpi042012.pdf


Food and Non Alcoholic drinks’ index rose by 1.21 per cent between March 2012 and April 2012. The increase was mainly due to rises in prices of some food products such as milk, potatoes, maize flour and onions in April compared to March 2012. The price of a half litre packet of milk for instance, continued to increase from an average of KSh 38 in March to KSh 40 in April 2012. However, over the same period there were significant falls in the prices of tomatoes, sugar, cooking fat, bananas and spinach among other food items.

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’ index went up by 0.89 per cent between March and April 2012. Whereas the prices of electricity and kerosene went up by 1.5 and 2.7 per cent respectively, cooking gas prices on average declined by 2.0 per cent. The average cost of consuming 50 units of electricity increased from KSh 667 in March 2012 to KSh 677 in April 2012.

The Transport index rose by 1.67 per cent between March 2012 and April 2012 due to higher costs of diesel, petrol and bus/matatu fares.

@mwekezaji HFCK which rescheduled most of its loans (that is according to the MD)has its bad loans on check but when you look at Equity which had reduced its non performing loans in Dec in Q1 it has started rising and the exposure is still there where they might be forced to write off some of those loans.NIC non performing loans have increased from 2.3B in 2011 to 2.8B in 2012 while the provision has risen from 8M to 66M.