Year-on-year inflation in Mozambique rose to 4.09 percent in January, the National Institute of Statistics announced today, passing the 4% threshold that had not been surpassed since 2018.
The upward trend in year-on-year inflation has been seen since August 2020, when it stood at 2.75%, according to INE’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) tables.
“The divisions of ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’ and ‘alcoholic beverages and tobacco’, were in year-on-year terms those that recorded the highest price variation with about 9.14% and 8.47%, respectively,” the bulletin notes.
The city of Nampula, in northern Mozambique, led the trend of rising prices, followed by the city of Beira and the city of Maputo.
In the same vein, the average 12-month inflation in Mozambique is rising since March 2020, reaching 2.19 percent in January.
In monthly terms, the year 2021 started with a monthly inflation of 1.18%, with food, non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and footwear having the largest contribution in the price rise.
“The city of Beira had the highest monthly variation in the period under review (2.09 percent), followed by the city of Nampula (1.13 percent) and Maputo (0.87 percent),” it said.
Today’s INE bulletin also corrects 2020 inflation from 3.52 percent (published in January) to 3.14 percent.
In January the Bank of Mozambique announced a “substantial upward revision of the inflation outlook for the medium term,” which reflects “continued depreciation of the metical, in an environment of increased risks and uncertainties.
The CPI figures are calculated by INE from the price changes of a basket of goods and services, with data collected in the cities of Maputo, Beira and Nampula.
