CONSUMER PRICE 
INDEX (CPI) 
MA Y 2026
10 June 2026
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
STATISTICS OF RWANDA
RWF
©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
2
NISR © 2026 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. Licensed under CC BY 4.0
P.O Box: 6139 Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: +250 788 383103
Email: info@statistics.gov.rw
Website: www.statistics.gov.rw
Recommended citation:
National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), Consumer Price Index (CPI), 2026

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
3
         TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. 	
SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................................	
4
	
1.1. Urban Index............................................................................................................................................	
4
	
1.2. Rural Index.............................................................................................................................................	
4
	
1.3. Overall Rwanda Index.............................................................................................................................	
4
2. 	
URBAN CONSUMER PRICE INDEX...................................................................................................	
5
3. 	
OTHER SELECTED URBAN INDICES..........................................................................................................	
6
	
4.1 Main terms used in Rwandan CPI............................................................................................................	
7
	
4. 2. How to Interpret CPI..............................................................................................................................	
8
4. 	
METHODOLOGICAL NOTICE............................................................................................................	 7
5.           ANNEXES: REFERENCE TABLES.........................................................................................................	 9

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
4
  1   Summary 
This is the monthly publication of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of May 2026. Urban 
CPI will be the focus of this publication as it is the headline index for monetary policy purposes. 
1.1. Urban Index
Urban CPI increased by 12.9 percent on annual basis (May 2026 compared to May 2025) and it 
increased by 0.5 percent on monthly basis (May 2026 compared to April 2026). The annual average 
inflation rate between May 2026 and May 2025 was 8.7 percent.
1.2. Rural Index
Rural CPI increased by 11.8 percent on annual basis and it increased by 0.7 percent on monthly basis.
1.3. Overall Rwanda Index
Rwanda CPI increased by 12.3 percent on annual basis and it increased by 0.6 percent on monthly 
basis. 
TABLE 1: Consumer Price Index, Urban and Rural
                                     percentage change on the same period 12 months earlier:
2025
2026
May.
Jun.
Jul.
Aug.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May.
Urban CPI Annual change
6.9
7.0
7.3
7.1
7.3
7.1
7.2
8.0
8.9
9.2
9.2
13.0
12.9
Rural CPI Annual change
8.2
9.2
7.0
5.9
5.5
3.8
2.0
3.3
6.5
7.0
6.7
10.6
11.8
Rwanda CPI Annual change
7.7
8.3
7.2
6.4
6.2
5.1
4.1
5.2
7.5
7.9
7.7
11.5
12.3
Urban CPI Monthly change
0.6
-0.2
0.1
0.7
1.4
1.3
0.2
0.0
1.3
0.9
1.3
4.7
0.5
Rural CPI Monthly change
-0.4
0.1
-1.1
0.7
1.2
0.8
-0.3
-0.9
0.1
1.4
1.9
6.8
0.7
Rwanda CPI Monthly change
0.0
0.0
-0.6
0.7
1.3
1.0
-0.1
-0.6
0.6
1.2
1.7
5.9
0.6
Source: NISR

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
5
  2   Urban Consumer Price Index
Urban CPI is calculated based on approximately 1,622 products in twelve urban centres of Rwanda. 
The table below shows monthly and annual changes in May 2026 for the main categories of urban 
index. 
TABLE 2: Consumer Price Index, Urban summary
Percentage change in May. 2026
Code
Categories
Weights
on Apr. 2026
on May. 2025
GENERAL INDEX
100%
0.5%
12.9%
01
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
27%
0.9%
6.2%
01.1.1
Bread and cereals
5%
0.4%
7.9%
01.1.2
Meat
2%
0.3%
12.9%
01.1.4
Milk cheese and eggs
1%
0.1%
6.7%
01.1.7
Vegetables
9%
2.1%
9.0%
01.2
Non-alcoholic beverages
1%
1.0%
11.0%
02
Alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics
5%
0.2%
16.1%
03
Clothing and footwear
5%
0.9%
5.8%
04
Housing  water,  electricity,  gas and other fuels
21%
-0.9%
19.4%
05
Furnishings  household equipment and routine 
household maintenance
4%
2.2%
9.3%
06
Health
1%
0.2%
71.6%
07
Transport
12%
1.1%
24.5%
08
Communication
3%
0.0%
4.0%
09
Recreation and culture
3%
0.0%
5.5%
10
Education
3%
0.0%
12.9%
11
Restaurants and hotels
9%
0.1%
16.6%
12
Miscellaneous goods and services
6%
1.3%
9.0%
Source: NISR
Urban CPI increased by 12.9 percent in May 2026 compared to the same month of 2025. ‘Food 
and non-alcoholic beverages’ increased by 6.2 percent, ‘Alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics’ 
increased by 16.1 percent, ‘Housing water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ increased by 19.4 percent, 
Health increased by 71.6 percent, Transport increased by 24.5 percent and ‘Restaurants and Hotels’ 
increased by 16.6 percent. 
The CPI for May 2026 increased by 0.5 percent compared to April 2026. ‘Food and non-alcoholic 
beverages’ increased by 0.9 percent’ and Transport increased by 1.1 percent.  
The underlying inflation rate (excluding fresh food and energy) increased by 12 percent when 
compared to May 2025 and it increased by 0.7 percent when compared to April 2026. (See Table 4). 
The annual average inflation rate between May 2026 and May 2025 was 8.7 percent. The annual 
average underlying inflation rate was 9.2 percent. 

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
6
TABLE 3: Consumer Price Index (Urban only): Core and General, annual percentage change 
(evolution over 12 months)
                                     percentage change on the same period 12 months earlier:
2025
2026
May.
Jun.
Jul.
Aug.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May.
General index
5.5
5.7
5.9
6.1
6.5
6.7
6.9
7.0
7.2
7.4
7.6
8.2
8.7
Core / Underlying index
5.6
5.6
5.8
6.0
6.3
6.7
7.0
7.2
7.4
7.7
8.0
8.7
9.2
Source: NISR
Figure 1: Annual changes in urban CPI (January 2014 – May 2026)
  
 

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
7
 3    Other selected urban indices
This section highlights five selected urban indices: the local goods index, the imported goods index, 
the fresh products index, the energy index and the core index. 
On annual basis, the local goods index increased by 13.7 percent, the imported goods index increased 
by 10.5 percent, the fresh products index increased by 7.3 percent, the energy index increased by 
44.4 percent and the core index or the general index excluding fresh products and energy increased 
by 12 percent. 
On monthly basis, the local goods index increased by 0.3 percent, the imported goods index increased 
by 1.1 percent, the fresh products index increased by 0.3 percent, the energy index decreased by 0.5 
percent and the core index increased by 0.7 percent.
TABLE 4: Consumer Price Index (Urban only), Core & other
Percentage change in May. 2026
Categories
Weights
on Apr. 2026
on May. 2025
GENERAL INDEX
100%
0.5%
12.9%
Local Goods Index
77%
0.3%
13.7%
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
21%
1.0%
6.9%
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels
21%
-0.9%
19.3%
Transport
6%
0.1%
29.1%
Imported Goods Index
23%
1.1%
10.5%
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
7%
0.4%
3.7%
Furnishing, household equipment
2%
2.1%
7.2%
Transport
6%
2.0%
20.9%
Fresh Products index1
16%
0.3%
7.3%
Energy index
7%
-0.5%
44.4%
General Index excluding fresh Products and energy2
77%
0.7%
12.0%
Source: NISR
(1) Fresh products are food products which have seasonal fluctuations
(2) Proxy for underlying inflation

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
8
  4    Methodological notice
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time of goods and 
services purchased by households. The CPI uses a Modified Laspeyres formula to calculate the 
index. The reference population for the CPI consists of all households, both urban and rural in 
Rwanda.
The household basket includes 1,622 products sold in many places spread all over the country. A 
variety of places of observation are selected: shops, markets, hospitals, schools etc. More than 
29,482 prices in urban areas and 10,744 in rural areas are collected every month.
Weights used for the index are from the Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV4) results 
conducted in 2013-2014 with a sample of 14,419 households.
Each month, NISR publishes the Urban index, Rural index and Overall Rwanda index. The Urban CPI 
is considered as the headline index for monetary policy purposes. In addition, select detailed item 
indices are published for items judged to be important or experiencing extreme price movement.
4.1 Main terms used in Rwandan CPI 
General index: The highest level of aggregation of a CPI which covers all the items within the scope 
of the CPI 
Core (underlying) inflation: A type of CPI which shows the underlying trend in inflation by excluding 
those movements which arise from transient factors such as seasonality or other short term price 
volatility
Index reference period (Feb 2014=100): The period with which all other periods are compared (the 
period for which the value of the CPI is set at 100).
Monthly inflation: Compare the current index number compared with the index number of the 
previous month
Annual inflation: Compare the index number for a particular month with the index number for the 
same month of the previous year
Annual average inflation: Compare the average of all the monthly indices in a particular year with 
the corresponding average for the previous year. Any twelve-month average (e.g. from July 2016 to 
June 2017) may be compared with the twelve-month average (also from July 2015 to June 2016) in 
order to calculate June 2017 inflation rate.  
4. 2. How to Interpret CPI
Movements of the indices from one month to another usually are expressed as percentage changes 
rather than changes in index points.  The level of the index (relative to its base period) affects index 
point changes, but it does not affect percent changes. The following example illustrates how to 
calculate percentage changes:

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
9
Index point change
CPI	
	
	
	
	
	
178
Less CPI for previous period	
	
	
176
Equals index point change	
	
	
    2
Percent change
Index point difference	 	
	
	
    2
Divided by the previous index	
	
	
176
Equals	 	
	
	
	
            0.011
Results multiplied by 100	
                0.011 x 100
Equals percent change	 	
	
                 1.1

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
10
5    Annexes: Reference Tables 
Annex 1: Consumer Price Index, Urban
Index (Feb 2014=100)
Percentage change in May. 2026
Contributions1:
Code
Categories
Weights
May-25
Apr-26
May-26
on Apr. 2026
on May. 2025
1 month
12 months
00
GENERAL INDEX
100%
187.1
210.3
211.3
0.5%
12.9%
0.5%
12.9%
01
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
27%
251.8
265.1
267.4
0.9%
6.2%
0.3
2.3
01.1.1
Bread and cereals
5%
195.4
210.0
210.8
0.4%
7.9%
0.0
0.4
01.1.2
Meat
2%
299.0
336.3
337.4
0.3%
12.9%
0.0
0.4
01.1.4
Milk cheese and eggs
1%
212.6
226.6
226.9
0.1%
6.7%
0.0
0.1
01.1.7
Vegetables
9%
287.7
307.2
313.5
2.1%
9.0%
0.3
1.2
01.2
Non-alcoholic beverages
1%
200.5
220.3
222.6
1.0%
11.0%
0.0
0.2
02
Alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics
5%
241.1
279.4
279.9
0.2%
16.1%
0.0
1.0
03
Clothing and footwear
5%
166.3
174.4
176.0
0.9%
5.8%
0.0
0.3
04
Housing  water,  electricity,  gas and other fuels
21%
143.9
173.3
171.7
-0.9%
19.4%
-0.2
3.1
05
Furnishings  household equipment and routine 
household maintenance
4%
165.8
177.3
181.2
2.2%
9.3%
0.1
0.3
06
Health
1%
113.6
194.7
195.1
0.2%
71.6%
0.0
0.6
07
Transport
12%
195.2
240.5
243.1
1.1%
24.5%
0.2
3.2
08
Communication
3%
113.6
118.1
118.1
0.0%
4.0%
0.0
0.1
09
Recreation and culture
3%
152.1
160.5
160.4
0.0%
5.5%
0.0
0.1
10
Education
3%
155.5
175.6
175.6
0.0%
12.9%
0.0
0.3
11
Restaurants and hotels
9%
165.2
192.5
192.7
0.1%
16.6%
0.0
1.3
12
Miscellaneous goods and services
6%
144.9
155.9
157.9
1.3%
9.0%
0.1
0.4
Source: NISR
(1) “Contributions” take into account both the growth rate and the relative weight of each category to explain the percentage change observed.

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
11
Annex 2: Consumer Price Index, Rural
Index (Feb 2014=100)
Percentage change in May. 2026
Contributions1:
Code
Categories
Weights
May-25
Apr-26
May-26
on Apr. 2026
on May. 2025
1 month
12 months
00
GENERAL INDEX
100%
222.0
246.5
248.3
0.7%
11.8%
0.7%
11.8%
01
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
48%
264.8
283.6
286.4
1.0%
8.1%
0.5
4.7
01.1.1
Bread and cereals
8%
224.4
235.0
239.7
2.0%
6.8%
0.1
0.5
01.1.2
Meat
2%
330.4
377.7
381.0
0.9%
15.3%
0.0
0.4
01.1.4
Milk cheese and eggs
1%
223.9
233.8
233.7
0.0%
4.4%
0.0
0.0
01.1.7
Vegetables
26%
276.8
300.5
303.7
1.1%
9.7%
0.3
3.1
01.2
Non-alcoholic beverages
1%
205.0
219.8
220.5
0.3%
7.6%
0.0
0.1
02
Alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics
8%
231.4
263.6
262.2
-0.5%
13.3%
0.0
1.2
03
Clothing and footwear
5%
174.5
180.7
181.5
0.5%
4.0%
0.0
0.2
04
Housing  water,  electricity,  gas and other fuels
16%
167.4
207.1
207.2
0.1%
23.8%
0.0
2.9
05
Furnishings  household equipment and routine household 
maintenance
3%
173.8
187.9
191.6
2.0%
10.2%
0.0
0.3
06
Health
1%
116.7
185.1
186.3
0.6%
59.6%
0.0
0.4
07
Transport
4%
135.7
185.1
189.2
2.2%
39.5%
0.1
1.0
08
Communication
2%
137.8
137.8
137.8
0.0%
0.0%
0.0
0.0
09
Recreation and culture
1%
175.3
196.1
197.2
0.6%
12.5%
0.0
0.1
10
Education
1%
238.8
261.5
261.5
0.0%
9.5%
0.0
0.1
11
Restaurants and hotels
5%
198.7
224.1
225.0
0.4%
13.3%
0.0
0.5
12
Miscellaneous goods and services
4%
152.1
160.0
163.6
2.3%
7.6%
0.1
0.2
Source: NISR
(1) “Contributions” take into account both the growth rate and the relative weight of each category to explain the percentage change observed.

©National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda /CPI May 2026- N° 5
12
Annex 3: Consumer Price Index, All Rwanda
Index (Feb 2014=100)
Percentage change in May. 2026
Contributions1:
Code
Categories
Weights
May-25
Apr-26
May-26
on Apr. 2026
on May. 2025
1 month
12 months
00
GENERAL INDEX
100%
208.2
232.3
233.8
0.6%
12.3%
0.6%
12.3%
01
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
39%
262.8
280.0
282.7
0.9%
7.6%
0.4
3.7
01.1.1
Bread and cereals
7%
216.3
228.4
231.8
1.5%
7.2%
0.1
0.5
01.1.2
Meat
2%
315.8
358.3
360.6
0.6%
14.2%
0.0
0.4
01.1.4
Milk cheese and eggs
1%
217.5
229.5
229.6
0.0%
5.6%
0.0
0.1
01.1.7
Vegetables
18%
279.6
302.5
306.4
1.3%
9.6%
0.3
2.4
01.2
Non-alcoholic beverages
1%
202.2
219.4
220.9
0.7%
9.3%
0.0
0.1
02
Alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics
7%
233.9
268.0
267.1
-0.3%
14.2%
0.0
1.1
03
Clothing and footwear
5%
170.8
177.8
179.0
0.7%
4.8%
0.0
0.2
04
Housing  water,  electricity,  gas and other fuels
18%
154.7
189.2
188.5
-0.4%
21.8%
-0.1
3.0
05
Furnishings  household equipment and routine 
household maintenance
3%
169.7
182.6
186.4
2.1%
9.8%
0.1
0.3
06
Health
1%
115.3
189.7
190.5
0.4%
65.3%
0.0
0.4
07
Transport
8%
176.5
222.8
225.9
1.4%
28.0%
0.1
1.8
08
Communication
2%
122.9
125.5
125.5
0.0%
2.1%
0.0
0.0
09
Recreation and culture
2%
161.0
174.3
174.8
0.2%
8.5%
0.0
0.1
10
Education
2%
193.6
215.5
215.5
0.0%
11.3%
0.0
0.2
11
Restaurants and hotels
6%
179.9
206.7
207.1
0.2%
15.1%
0.0
0.8
12
Miscellaneous goods and services
5%
147.7
157.2
160.0
1.8%
8.3%
0.1
0.3
Source: NISR
(1) “Contributions” take into account both the growth rate and the relative weight of each category to explain the percentage change observed.

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