Meat prices keep escalating

PHILLEPUS UUSIKU

For the past five months, meat inflation which is one of Namibia’s staple food averaged 12.56%. On an annual basis, meat inflation jumped from 4.2% in April last year to 15.8% in April this year, an increase of 11.6 percentage points.

According to Namibia Statistic Agency (NSA), the food and non-alcoholic beverages category which captures meat was the third main driver of overall inflation in April behind the miscellaneous goods and services, and transport categories.

The three categories recorded an annual inflation rate of 5.9%,6.6% and 7.5%, respectively. The food and non-alcoholic beverages category carry the second largest weigh of 16.45 after the housing category (28.36).

This implies that on average, for every N$100 that consumers have in their wallets, N$16.45 is like to be spend on food and non-alcoholic beverages.

With regard to fish which is a close substitute to meat, on an annual basis, inflation stood at 3.6% in April this year compared to 2.8% recorded in April last year, an increase of 0.8% percentage points.

On a monthly basis, however, fish prices were in a deflationary territory when compared to an inflation rate of 4.8% recorded in March this year, a decrease of 1.2 percentage points. Deflation is the decrease in the prices of goods and services.

Overall, annual inflation rate for April 2021 increased to 3.9% compared to 1.6% recorded in April 2020, making it the highest annual inflation rate recorded since June 2019. In March this year, annual inflation stood at 3.1%, NSA said.

Zones

With regard to the zones, Zone 3(//Kharas, Erongo, Hardap and Omaheke) recorded the highest inflation rate of 4.4%, while Zone 1(Northern regions) and Zone 2(Windhoek) each recorded 3.7%.

The increase in the annual inflation rate for Zone 1 was mainly due to price developments in transport from -0.3% to 9.2%, communications from -1.7% to 7.6%, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house from 2.7% to 7.8% and hotels cafes and restaurants from 0.7% to 4.3%, NSA pointed out.

As for Zone 2, the increase was mainly due to increases obtained in the price levels of alcoholic beverages and tobacco from -3.2% to 4.8%, food and non-alcoholic beverages from 1.5% to 8.0%, miscellaneous goods and services from 5.8% to 7.6%, NSA added.

In addition, transport increased from 0.5% to 6.2%, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house from 1.3% to 5.3% and health from 3.5% to 5.5%.

Lastly, the increase in Zone 3 inflation was due to the price developments in transport from -0.5% to 6.6%, miscellaneous goods and services from 5.2% to 9.8%, water, electricity, gas and other fuels from -0.3% to 3.7%, alcoholic beverages and tobacco from 4.4% to 7.5% and recreation and culture from 0.4% to 3.3%, NSA said.