A cost-of-living analysis by Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) has shown that the cost of living for a household of six members reached K663,204 in November.
This represents an 18.8 percent jump from K558,200 at the end of January 2024 and a 4.17 percent increase from K636,634 in October.
According to the Ecam report, food prices went up by 5.99 percent in October 2024.
But the price of maize remained constant at K45,000 per 50-kilogramme bag.
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On the other hand, the overall price for non-food items increased by an average of 1.26 from K163169 in October 2024 to K165,220 in November.
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Consumers Association of Malawi Executive Director John Kapito said the situation reflected rising headline inflation due to high government expenditure and borrowing and failure to invest in productive sectors.
“The high cost of living will continue to hurt consumers we cannot manage and contain our inflation. Currently, it is impossible to expect the government to provide cushioning measures to consumers,” Kapito said.
Economist Marvin Banda said the Consumer Price Index measure was potentially fallacious because of heterogeneity in the basket of goods as well as inter and intra-temporal elasticities which determine the marginal rate of substitution of goods consumed.
He said some goods had complementary characteristics, which means that assuming a household consumes complementary goods, it could change to substitutes or even start consuming something cheaper.
