Inflation rises to 9.6% in October
Malawi’s headline inflation inched up by 0.4 percentage points to 9.6 percent in October 2019 from 9.2 percent in September, latest figures from National Statistical Office (NSO) show.
The NSO figures show that food inflation went up from 13.9 percent in September to 16.0 percent.
Non-food Inflation decreased to 4.3 percent from 5.4 percent in the preceding two months.
This is coming at a time maize prices have remained high. Maize, as part of the food component, impacts the country’s economy given that it constitutes 45.2 percent in the Consumer Price Index-an aggregate basket of goods and services for computing inflation.
Recently, the government urged private traders who are holding on to the commodity in anticipation of a further increase in prices to risk being crowded out by foreign suppliers which it claims to have identified.
This also comes following a recent adjustment in fuel price which saw the price of a litre of petrol moving from K868 to K930 representing 7.14 percent, while that of diesel went up from K874 to K924, representing 5.72 while the price of paraffin was maintained at K710.50.
Reserve Bank of Malawi has maintained that despite fluctuations in the inflation trends, it will achieve 5 percent inflation by first quarter of 2021.
