Maputo, 13 Mar (AIM) – Mozambique’s annual inflation rate fell to four per cent in February, according to the latest figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The annual inflation rate has been falling steadily. It declined from 5.43 per cent in November, to 4.29 per cent in December, to 4.19 per cent in January, and now to four per cent.
Based on the consumer price indices from all of Mozambique’s major urban centres, the INE calculates that prices rose by an average of 0.47 per cent in February.
The main price rises were for butter beans (7.8 per cent), tomatoes (5.5 per cent), cabbage (five per cent), brown sugar (five per cent), dried fish (3.8 per cent), and unhusked rice (2.6 per cent).
Some fruit dropped sharply in price. Thus lemons cost 31.4 per cent less than in January, and oranges 17.5 per cent less. Other significant price falls were for chicken eggs (down by 3.2 per cent), live chickens (2.7 per cent), and cigarettes (0.7 per cent).
Inflation over the first two months of the year was 1.4 per cent.
The city with the highest rate of inflation in February was Quelimane, where the average level of prices rose by 1.36 per cent, followed by Beira (0.8 percent), Chimoio (0.69 percent), and Xai-Xai (0.45 per cent).
The lowest inflation was in Maputo, where prices only rose by 0.06 per cent over the month.
(AIM)
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