Consumers to make peace with food prices

PHILLEPUS UUSIKUAnnual meat inflation increased significantly to 13.3% in March this year compared to a rate of 3.3% recorded in March last year, an increase of 10 percentage points.Similarly, overall food inflation increased from 2.9% in March last year to 7.1% in March 2021, an increase of 4.2 percentage points, according to Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) Consumer Price Index (CPI).Consumers will have to dig deeper in their pockets and pay more for the same quantity of goods if they wish to maintain their consumption levels or alternatively cut down if they can’t afford.The overall annual inflation rate for March 2021 increased to 3.1% compared to 2.4% recorded in March 2020, an increase of 0.7 percentage points.For month of February this year, the overall annual inflation rate stood at 2.7%, compared to 2.5% in February 2020.According to NSA, the growth in the annual inflation rate for was mainly as a result of increases recorded in the price levels of food and non-alcoholic beverages.The food and non-alcoholic beverages category, which captures meat, bread and cereals, fish, fruits and vegetables, carry the second largest weight in the NSA CPI basket of 16.45. This implies that for every N$100 that consumers have in their wallets, on average, N$16.45 is likely to be spend on those items.Secondly, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels also recorded an increase from -0.3% to 1.1%. The housing category carry the biggest weight of 28.36, this implies that for every N$100 that a consumer has in their wallet, on average, N$28.36 is likely to be spend on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels.The transport category carries the third largest weight of 14.28. On a monthly basis, statistics show that operation of personal transport equipment inflation, a sub category of transport, increased significantly from -0.3% in February to 0.9% in March. Hence, for every N$100, N$14.28 is likely to be spend on transport, on average.ZonesWith regard to the zones, Zone 3 (//Kharas, Erongo, Hardap and Omaheke) recorded the highest inflation rate of 3.7% from 2.5% recorded in March 2020, followed by Zone 2 (Windhoek) and Zone 1 (northern regions), recording 3.0% and 2.9%, respectively, NSA said.Zone 1 inflation emanated mainly from increases in the price levels of communications from -1.5% to 7.3%, food and non-alcoholic beverages from 3.5% to 6.9%, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house from 2.8% to 6.1%.The increase in Zone 2 was mainly due to increases in the price levels of food and non-alcoholic beverages from 1.5% to 7.4%, alcoholic beverages and tobacco from -1.5 percent to 5.1%, health from 3.2%to 4.9% and miscellaneous goods and services from 6.4% to 7.1%.Lastly, the increase in inflation rate for Zone 3 resulted mainly from increases in price levels recorded in miscellaneous goods and services from 4.8% to 9.9%, housing water, electricity, gas and other fuels from -0.2% to 3.7%.

Consumers to make peace with food prices

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Consumers to make peace with food prices

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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