Kenya Raises Minimum Wage by 12% to Ease Impact of Inflation

(Bloomberg) --

Kenya raised minimum wages by 12% to help workers who have seen household budgets squeezed by inflation, particularly for basic foodstuffs like cooking oil.

The raise in wages, effective immediately, would help protect people’s spending power, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement. He made the announcement during an address in Nairobi to mark Labor Day celebrations. The minimum wage hasn’t been reviewed in over three years, Kenyatta said.

“There is a compelling case to review the minimum wages so as to cushion our workers against further erosion of their purchasing power, while also guaranteeing the competitiveness of our economy,” he said.

Kenya’s inflation surged more than expected in April, rising 6.5% from a year earlier. The spillover from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is stoking inflation in East Africa’s largest economy, with prices of vegetable oils, wheat, fertilizer and fuel surging. Food costs are a problem elsewhere in the world too, with record global prices threatening to push more people into hunger.

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