Utilities, housing drive inflation in 2017

With the last release of the inflation figures for 2017 by the Namibia Statistics Agency, it has become apparent that housing, water and electricity were responsible for the elevated price levels observed in the economy throughout the year.

This was the opinion of statistician-general Alex Shimuafeni.

Based on the November 2017 price movements, the annual inflation rate stood at 5.2% as compared to 7.3% recorded in November 2016, registering a decrease of 2.1 percentage points. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate increased to 0.3% from 0.1 % registered a monthly earlier.

According to Shimuafeni, the increased in the general price levels over the year emanated mainly from housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (8.6%), education (7.8%), hotels, cafes and restaurants (6.7%), transport (6.1%) and health (5.7 %)

The biggest contributors to the rise in the general price level were increased costs for utilities and housing and transport, which grew by double-digit figures when measured over the span of a full year.

“The highest contributors to the November 2017 inflation were housing, water and electricity and transport, which contributed 45.8% and 15.7% respectively,” Shimuafeni said.

The statistician-general noted that inflation had subsided somewhat in 2017 in comparison to 2016.

“The average annual and average monthly inflation rates for the period January to November 2017 were estimated at 6.3% and 0.4% while the corresponding rates registered during the same period a year earlier stood at 6.7% and 0.6% respectively,” Shimuafeni said.

The Bank of Namibia this month decided to keep its repo rate unchanged at 6.75%.

Justifying its decision, it said while inflation had averaged 6.4% over the first ten months of the year, a deceleration was noted on a monthly basis to end the month of October at 5.2%, down from the record high of 8.2% registered for the year in January.