UPDATE 1-Kenyan inflation 5.2 pct in Feb with new basket

NAIROBI, March 3 (Reuters) - Kenya's consumer prices climbed 5.2 percent from a year earlier in February, based on a new goods basket which lowered the weighting for food, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The bureau said consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in February from January with a 0.6 percent rise in food prices and non-alcoholic drinks being the main driver.

January's headline inflation rate was 4.7 percent using the old weightings for the goods basket. The statistics bureau said it had not yet calculated previous months using the new basket, nor what February inflation would have been under the old system.

For February, it expanded the basket of goods used to calculate the consumer price index to 12 categories from 10 to reflect changes in spending habits.

The weighting for food and non-alcoholic drinks dropped to 36.04 percent from 50.50 and the transport and communications category was split in two -- increasing the weighting for both to 12.48 percent from 5.75 percent previously.

A new category for hotels and restaurants was also introduced.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by David Clarke) Keywords: KENYA INFLATION/ (Email: [e-mail] [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.