The new CPI showed that the weight of beer in the shopping basket for a typical middle-income household in Nairobi had risen nearly 10 times for the lower middle class and over seven-fold for the upper-middle class. As consumers get richer, the contents of their shopping basket change dramatically to include the finer things in life. In the old Consumer Price Index (CPI), or shopping basket, for the middle class “Alcohol Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics” had a weight of 1.40. Paying rent for a flat was the single costliest item in the middle-class’ shopping basket. A profile of a digital borrower in a 2018 study fit the typical middle-class, especially the lower-middle-class.

Source: Daily Nation January 04, 2022 03:16 UTC