Mozambique’s inflation slows to 10.76 percent y/y in September

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Mozambique’s inflation slows to 10.76 percent y/y in September

6:56 CAT | 11 Oct 2017

Mozambique annual consumer inflation fell to 10.76 percent in September from 14.13 percent in August, data on the National Institute of Statistics website showed on Monday.

After several months of falling prices, September saw inflation in Mozambique of 0.24 per cent, as measured by the consumer price indices in the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira).

According to the National Statistics Institutes (INE), this means that inflation for the period 1 January to 30 September was 3.53 per cent, and inflation over the past year (1 October 216 to 30 September 2017) was 10.76 per cent.

Foodstuffs, taken as a whole, continued to fall in price in September. Among the items which caused the month’s inflation were the prices of electricity, petrol, charcoal and passenger transport.

Prices did not behave identically in the three cities. In Maputo, prices rose by 0.46 per cent, and in Nampula by 0.1 per cent, while in Beira prices fell by 0.24 per cent.

Prices rose in the first four months of the year (by 2.15 per cent in January, 1.25 per cent in February, 0.85 per cent in March and 1.13 per cent). A period of deflation followed from May to August, before prices began to rise again in September.

This is the normal pattern for inflation in Mozambique, which is determined largely by food prices. Inflation rises in the initial months of the year, and then prices fall as the harvest comes in, before rising again in the approach to the festive season.

The government will be pleased with these figures which are a marked improvement on last year. In 2016, inflation from January to the end of September was 15.6 per cent, and it reached 23.67 per cent by the end of the year.

Source: Reuters / AIM