Uganda’s annual headline inflation rate for the year ending March 2025 fell to 3.4%, down from 3.7% recorded for the year ending February 2025.
This was revealed on Monday as the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) announced the inflation indices for the out-gone month and year.
Speaking during the release of the inflation indices, Samuel Echoku, the head of macroeconomic statistics at UBOS, attributed the decrease in annual headline inflation to a reduction in annual core inflation, which stood at 3.6% for the year ending March, compared to 3.9% for the year ending February 2025.
“The main driver of Annual Core Inflation is the Annual Services Inflation recorded at 4.9 percent in March 2025 compared to 5.4 percent registered in February 2025.” Echoku stated
He also mentioned that hotel and lodging service charges saw a decline of 3.2% for the year ending March 2025, compared to a 4.4% decrease in the previous year.
Additionally, annual food crops inflation for the year ending March 2025 decreased to 3.1%, down from 4.3% for the year ending February 2025.
This decline was largely due to a significant drop in onion prices, which fell by 28.6%, compared to a 14.9% decrease previously.
However, annual inflation for energy, fuel, and utilities (EFU) rose to 0.3% for the year ending March 2025, up from 0.2% for the year ending February 2025.
This increase was linked to a rise in solid fuels inflation, which climbed to 7.3% in March 2025, compared to 6.5% in February 2025.
Monthly headline inflation for March 2025 increased by 0.2%, following a 0.6% rise recorded in February 2024.
The data also revealed that food crops and related inflation rose by 1.1% in March, compared to a 1.6% increase in February, primarily due to rising prices of sweet potatoes, green peppers, passion fruits, and pineapples.
According to UBOS, the national average retail price for sweet potatoes increased from Shs 1,029 to Shs 1,116 per kilogram, while the price of passion fruit surged from Shs 6,286 to Shs 7,823.
The prices of maize flour and local chicken also saw notable increases.
Meanwhile, UBOS data indicated that the average price of petrol decreased slightly in March to Shs 4,971 per litre, down from Shs 4,983 per litre.
However, there was a slight increase from Shs 4,659 in February to Shs 4,669 per litre.
