Namibia’s annual inflation rate for September increased by 3.5% compared to 2.4% recorded over the same period last year, the Namibia Statistics Agency announced on Thursday.
On a monthly basis, the inflation rate increased by 0.3%, higher than the -0.2% recorded a month earlier, largely attributed to Transport (1.0 percentage points) and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.9 percentage points).
The Zonal inflation rates for the month of September 2021 show that, Zone 1 (Kavango East, Kavango West, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa, and Zambezi) and Zone 2 (Khomas) each recorded annual inflation rate of 3.1%, while Zone 3, (Erongo, Hardap, Omaheke and //Kharas) registered an inflation rate of 4.6%.
On a monthly basis, Zone 1 recorded an inflation rate of 0.4%, Zone 2 recorded 0.2%, and Zone 3 registered 0.5%.
The annual inflation rate for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels component increased by 1.3% during September 2021, compared to a deflation of 1.3% registered in September of the preceding year.
The inflation rate for the food sub-category increased by 5.1% during the period under review, compared to 7.1% recorded during the same period of the preceding year.
Prices for purchase of vehicles increased by 10.4% in September 2021 compared to 4.5% recorded during the same period last year.
According to Simonis Storm, the year-to-date average inflation rate maintained at 3.5%, is in line with its forecast for 2021.
