Namibia’s inflation continued an upward trend in February, increasing by 4.5% compared to 2.7% recorded in February 2021, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has announced.
NSA CEO and Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni, said the main contributors to the annual inflation rate for February 2022 were transport, food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
Other drivers also included furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house each contributed, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels and recreation and culture, education and hotels, cafes and restaurant each contributed.
However, on a monthly basis, the inflation rate decreased to 0.2% from 1.1% recorded a month earlier.
“The slowdown in the monthly inflation rate was reflected mainly in Hotels, cafes, and restaurants (from 7.1 percent to -0.1 percent); Furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (from 5.4 percent to -0.3 percent); Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 0.9 percent to -0.8 percent),” he said.
The annual inflation rate for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels components, which accounts for 28.4% of the consumer basket, increased by 1.3% during February 2022 compared to 1.5% registered during the same period last year.
“The highest percentage change in this component during the month of February 2022 was observed in Regular maintenance and repair of dwelling at 7.4 percent while the lowest rate of -0.1 percent was observed in Electricity, gas, and other fuels,” the NSA CEO said.
The inflation rate for the Food sub-category according to the NSA, recorded a slow increase of 5.5% during the period under review when compared to 5.7% recorded during the same period last year.
“Prices for Oils and fats increased by 13.4% in February 2022 compared to 10.6% recorded in February 2021. Prices for Bread and cereals increased by 3.6% during February 2022 compared to 3.2% in February 2021. The price levels of Fish recorded an inflation rate of 3.9% in February 2022 compared to a decline of 0.6% recorded in February 2021. Prices for meat increased by 7.2% during the period under review compared to 11.8% registered during the same period last year,” he said
The NSA said its analysis of the average retail prices of selected products for the month of February 2022 presented in Table 2 shows that consumers in Zone 2 paid the highest price for Pure sunflower oil (750 ml) at N$29.54 followed by Zone 3 at N$28.95, while consumers in Zone 1 paid the lowest price of N$27.57.
“For brown bread, consumers in Zone 1 paid the lowest price at N$10.98, while the highest price was recorded in Zone 2 at N$11.26. For Eggs (pack of 6), consumers in Zone 1 paid the lowest price at N$17.92, while the highest was paid by Zone 3 consumers at N$19.24,” the NSA CEO said.
