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Inflation dips to 3.6%

The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) recently released inflation numbers for February.

The overall inflation figure stood at 3.6%, dropping from 4.5% recorded in January.
According to the data released, aggregate prices dropped with monthly inflation recorded at -0.2% according to Simonis Storm Securities analyst Daniel Kavishe.
Overall, the Namibia Consumer Price Index dropped from 110.6 to 110.4 as transport inflation decelerated to -2.7% year-on-year.
During the month of February, this index increased from 114.3 to 115.3, representing a monthly increase of 0.9% and a yearly growth of 6.6%. He said, “food inflation accelerated the fastest on a monthly basis as the prices of coffee, tea, cocoa, milk cheese and eggs increased by over 10%.
Prices of bread and cereals continued on a downward trend (4.0% year-on-year) as opposed to meat prices which have supposedly increased by 10% year-on-year. “Looking forward, we expect the beef prices to decelerate due to poorer rains which has forced farmers to auction their cattle,” he said.
With the highest weight of 28.4% in the consumer basket, the year-on-year growth in this category remained subdued at a growth rate of 2.88%. On a monthly basis the category moved by 0.2% with the only notable changes in the category of regular household maintenance which indicated a jump in prices by 1.3% he explained. Annual inflation numbers in this category stood at 7.7% for February as tobacco prices ticked up slightly by 0.5% on a monthly basis.
Added Kavishe, “we anticipate transport inflation to remain subdued which will maintain a downward pressure on CPI over the next month. Currently we forecast 3.8% inflation as recent hike in food prices to impact our local basket. The rand continues to devalue substantially which will invariably impact local inflation with higher import prices.”

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