Malawi inflation hits 7.6% as prices of goods and services are rising

Malawi’s year-on-year inflation rate  has hit a record 7.6 per cent for December 2020 owing to rising food and non-food prices, published National Statistical Office (NSO) figures showed.

The rate, which measures cost of living by reflecting how prices of general commodities increase in an economy, climbed by 0.3 % from 7.3 % in November.

The NSO’s Consumer Price Index says the slight inflation rise days after analysts projected the same owing to food price increase pressure.

Meanwhile, food inflation has increased to 4.3 % from 3.7 % in November, while non-food inflation was recorded at 0.8 percent from 0.5 %.

In his analysis, Ben Kaluwa, an economics professor at Chancellor College—a constituent college of the University of Malawi, describes the inflation trend as normal; hinting that there are prospect of it rising further before retreating later in the second quarter.

Government has ordered Admarc to start selling maize immediately at K160 per kilogram to cushion the rising inflation.

Maize, as part of the food component, impacts the country’s inflation as it has a huge weight at 45.2 percent in the in the consumer price index (CPI)—an aggregate basket for goods and services for computing inflation.

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