Transport inflation decreases to 3.7% in March
NSA Acting Statistician General, Liina Kafidi.
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) this week reported a decline in the inflation rate of 3.6% in February to 3.4% in March on an annual rate and an increase of 0.4% on a monthly basis as compared to a decrease of 0.2% in the previous month.
NSA Acting Statistician General, Liina Kafidi, attributed the decline to Transport inflation which decreased to 3.7% during the month under review compared to 7.4% recorded in the same period last year.
“The major drivers of the annual inflation during the moth of March were recorded in groups which declined from -2.6% registered during the previous month to -3.7%. On a monthly basis, the general level of prices in Namibia moderately increased by 0.4% after a decline of 0.2% in the previous month.
This increase in monthly inflation was mainly brought by increases in the prices of goods and services in all the groups of the consumption basket with the exception of the group of communication which declined to 0.1%,” Kafidi said.
The annual inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages category stood at 5.5% in March, a 1.1% point decrease from 6.6 recorded in the previous months. The decline in monthly food prices inflation is recorded in the sub-groups of food and meat which dropped to 0.6 and 0.4% from 1.1
and 0.7% registered a month earlier. The inflation for food for food and beverages at 0.7%, price increases in this category were mainly observed in the sub components of sugar, honey, jam at 3.3%, vegetables including tubers at 2.7%, oils and fats (1.4%), mineral water, soft drinks and juice (0.9%)and fruit (0.6%).
Kafidi also said that the annual inflation rate for the group of alcoholic beverages and tobacco stood at 8.6%in March, a 0.9% points increment from7.7% recorded in the previous month. Corresponding rates recorded during the same period a year earlier stood at 5%.
