Mozambique recorded year-on-year inflation of 2.75 per cent in August 2024, compared to the same month of the previous year, a slight decrease on the 2.97 per cent recorded in July, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In monthly terms, the country registered deflation of 0.11 per cent in August, marking the third consecutive monthly deflation.
The monthly fall in prices was mainly influenced by the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ division, which contributed around negative 0.11 percentage points to the total variation, according to INE.
Among the products with the biggest price reductions were onions (-10.0%), cabbage (-10.6%), lettuce (-7.4%), tomatoes (-5.1%) and dried fish (-1.0%). On the other hand, some products bucked the downward trend, such as grain corn (12.0%), lemons (48.6%) and okra (6.7%), which contributed around 0.10 percentage points to the monthly variation.
Accumulated inflation from January to August 2024 was 1.04%, with the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ and ‘Restaurants, Hotels, Cafés and Similar’ divisions contributing the most to this variation, with 0.40 and 0.21 percentage points respectively.
Products such as dried fish, complete restaurant meals, butter beans and brown sugar had a significant impact on the accumulated variation, contributing around 0.89 percentage points.
In terms of variation by place of collection, only the city of Beira (0.28%) and the province of Inhambane (0.06%) recorded price increases in August.
The remaining cities recorded falls, the biggest being in the city of Xai-Xai (-0.30 per cent), followed by the city of Nampula (-0.20 per cent), and the cities of Quelimane, Tete and Maputo (-0.18 per cent each).
Year-on-year inflation, which compares August 2024 with the same month in 2023, indicated a rise in prices of 2.75 per cent. The ‘Education’ and ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ divisions recorded the biggest year-on-year variations, with increases of 6.18 per cent and 5.28 per cent respectively.
The city of Quelimane recorded the highest year-on-year price increase with 5.34 per cent, followed by the city of Xai-Xai (3.82 per cent) and the city of Beira (3.33 per cent).
The CPI is calculated on the basis of a set of goods and services representative of household consumption, using the Laspeyres formula, with fixed annual weights obtained from the 2022 Family Budget Survey (IOF). INE, as the central body of the National Statistical System (SEN), is responsible for coordinating and disseminating official statistical information in Mozambique, ensuring its transparency and rigour.
Florença Nhabinde
