Namibia’s July inflation rate hits 6.8 pct

WINDHOEK, Aug. 12 — Namibia’s inflation rate rose 6.8 percent year on year in July compared to 4 percent recorded in July 2021, Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) said Thursday.
“This is the highest inflation rate recorded since April 2017,” the agency said in the Namibia consumer price index (NCPI) report released Thursday.
Transport and food and non-alcoholic beverages components continued to be the main contributors to the annual inflation rate with a contribution of 3 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points, respectively, the agency said.
According to the NCPI report, the increase in the transport component was mainly reflected in the price levels of operation of personal transport equipment which increased by 35.5 percent, while the inflation rate for the food sub-category increased by 8.4 percent during July 2022 compared to 6.5 percent registered during the same period of the preceding year.
The increase was mainly reflected in the prices of oils and fats, fruit, and sugar, jam, honey, syrups, chocolate, and confectionery, the NSA noted.
Theo Klein, an economist with Simonis Storm Securities, an investment research firm, told Xinhua that while there are several deflationary pressures globally, Namibia’s inflation is expected to remain elevated for the next couple of months, owing to international price pressures that are delayed in filtering through to Namibia and due to the weakness of South African rand.
“Food inflation appears to decline globally, albeit increasing at a decreasing rate, and this can take some time to lower food price inflation rates in Namibia,” he concluded.  (Xinhua)