Year-on-year inflation rate increased in April: NSA

The year-on-year inflation rate increased to 6.1 per cent last month compared to the 5.6 per cent recorded in April 2022.

This is according to the Namibia Consumer Price Index (NCPI) bulletin for April 2023 released by the Namibia Statistics Agency on Thursday.

“On a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate slowed to 0.4 per cent, down from 0.6 per cent registered during the preceding month,” it said.

It further said based on the price movements at the zonal level for April 2023, Zone 1 (Kavango East, Kavango West, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa, and Zambezi) recorded the highest annual inflation rate of 6.3 per cent.

This was followed by Zone 3 (||Kharas, Erongo, Hardap and Omaheke), which recorded an inflation rate of 6.0 per cent, while Zone 2 (Khomas) recorded the lowest annual inflation rate of 5.9 per cent.

On a monthly basis, Zone 2 and 1 recorded the highest monthly price changes of 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent, and Zone 3 recorded the slightest monthly change of 0.2 per cent.

The NCPI bulletin further noted that analysis of the average retail prices of selected products for April 2023 revealed that consumers in Zone 2 paid the highest price for a 750 millilitre (ml) bottle of pure sunflower oil at N.dollars 36.89, followed by Zone 3 at N.dollars 36.40. Consumers in Zone 1 paid the lowest price of N$36.07.

For a standard loaf of white bread, consumers in Zone 2 paid the lowest price at N.dollars 13.16, while the highest price was paid by consumers residing in Zone 3 at N.dollars 13.70. According to the bulletin, the major contributors to the annual inflation rate for April 2023 were food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.5 percentage points); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (0.9 percentage points); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.7 percentage points); and transport (0.6 percentage points), while all other divisions’ contribution stood at 1.5 percentage points.

“During the month of April 2023, the annual inflation rate for goods went up by 8.2 per cent compared to 7.4 per cent registered during the same period last year, while inflation rate for services rose by 3.2 per cent in April 2023 compared to 3.1 per cent recorded in April 2022,” it said.

It also explained that services such as public transport during the same period rose by 3.2 per cent, compared to the 3.1 per cent recorded in April 2022.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

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