Housing costs, alcohol and food prices were the main contributors to Namibia’s annual inflation rate of 2.4% in February 2026, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) bulletin released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
The NSA said headline inflation slowed to 2.4% in February from 3.6% recorded during the same period last year, reflecting easing price pressures across several consumer categories.
However, core inflation, which excludes more volatile components such as food and energy, stood at 3.2%, indicating that underlying price pressures remain relatively elevated.
According to the CPI report, the categories ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’, ‘Alcoholic beverages and tobacco’, and ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ were the largest contributors to inflation during the month.
Together, these three categories accounted for about two percentage points of the overall annual inflation rate.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels category made the largest contribution, adding 1.2 percentage points to the inflation rate. The category, which carries the largest weight in the consumer basket at 28.4%, recorded annual inflation of 4.7%, up from 3.6% in February 2025.
The NSA attributed the increase mainly to higher prices for electricity, gas and other fuels.
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco contributed 0.5 percentage points to overall inflation. The category recorded annual inflation of 3.4%, slightly lower than the 3.7% recorded a year earlier.
The agency said the slower inflation in this category reflects more moderate price increases for products such as wines and brandies, as well as slower growth in tobacco prices.
Meanwhile, the food and non-alcoholic beverages category contributed 0.3 percentage points to annual inflation. The category, which accounts for 16.5% of the CPI basket, recorded annual inflation of 1.6%, significantly lower than the 5.9% recorded in February 2025.
Despite the slower annual increase, the NSA said food prices still rose by 0.5% on a monthly basis.
Transport prices declined during the period, with the category recording deflation of 1.0% compared with inflation of 1.3% a year earlier. The decline was mainly driven by lower costs related to the operation of personal transport equipment.
The NSA also reported that the highest annual inflation rates across consumer categories were recorded in hotels, cafés and restaurants at 4.8%, followed by housing and utilities at 4.7%, health at 4.0%, recreation and culture at 3.9%, and furnishings and household maintenance at 3.5%.
