Namibia’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 5.4% in September 2026 from 3.5% a year earlier, driven largely by a sharp increase in transport costs as petrol and diesel prices rose 30.4%, according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
Transport was the biggest contributor to headline inflation, adding 2.2 percentage points, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.0 percentage point and food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.8 percentage points.
On a monthly basis, inflation slowed to 0.4% from 0.6% in August, while core inflation stood at 4.0%, below the headline rate.
Transport recorded annual inflation of 14.9% in September, sharply higher than the 1.3% recorded during the same month last year.
The increase was largely driven by the operation of personal transport equipment, where inflation accelerated to 20.1% from 0.3% a year earlier.
Petrol and diesel prices recorded annual inflation of 30.4%, compared with a 2.1% decline in September 2025. Licence and registration fees increased by 8.7%.
Public transport costs also rose sharply, with air transport inflation accelerating to 22.1% from a 0.2% decline a year earlier.
Taxi fares recorded inflation of 15.4%, while rail transport prices increased by 15.7% and bus fares by 12.6%.
Despite the sharp annual increases, monthly transport inflation moderated to 1.9% in September from 3.7% in August.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which account for 28.4% of Namibia’s consumer basket, recorded annual inflation of 4.2%, up from 3.6% in September 2025.
The NSA attributed the increase partly to rental payments, where inflation rose to 4.3% from 3.7%, while electricity, gas and other fuels increased to 3.8% from 3.0%. Regular maintenance and repair of dwellings increased by 4.0%.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages, which carry a 16.5% weight in the consumer basket, recorded annual inflation of 4.0%, easing from 4.9% a year earlier.
Meat inflation slowed significantly to 3.3% from 8.1% in September 2025. Beef inflation fell to 2.6% from 14.1%, while mutton and lamb slowed to 4.8% from 12.6%.
Fish inflation also eased to 3.2% from 9.2% a year earlier.
Other categories recording relatively high annual inflation included hotels, cafés and restaurants at 6.3%, health at 5.3% and recreation and culture at 4.5%.
Communication was the only major category to record annual deflation, with prices declining by 0.9%.
Overall goods inflation accelerated to 5.8% from 3.3% a year earlier, while services inflation increased to 4.7% from 3.8%.
