AfricaPress-mozambique: Data collected by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in the cities of Maputo, Beira and Nampula in late May indicate that the country registered a month-on month drop in the general price level in the order of 0.31%.
The INE says that the drop in prices was mainly driven by the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector, which contributed to the total monthly variation with around 0.34 negative percentage points (pp).
In terms of products, INE highlighted the fall in the prices of tomatoes (10.3%), coconut (10.9%), fresh fish (1.6%), kale (7.7%), and cabbage (10.4%), lettuce (6.2%) and motorbikes (2.3%) as contributing to the total monthly variation with a negative 0.51 pp.
“However, some products counteracted the downward trend, contributing about 0.25 pp positive, with emphasis on complete meals in restaurants (1.3%), wheat bread (2.3%), onion (3.4%), dried fish (1.0%), cassava flour (13.3%), rice in grain (0.6%) and live chicken (0.8%),” the INE observed.
Compared to the same period last year, the national statistical authority notes that the country recorded inflation of around 5.49%, influenced by the food and non-alcoholic beverages and alcoholic beverages and tobacco sectors, which recorded price increases of around 10.88% and 9.63% respectively.
Analysing the data by collection centre, INE noted that all cities registered deflation in May, with the city of Beira registering around 0.79%, followed by Maputo city with 0.20% and Nampula with a fall of around 0.16%.
