This is the third successive month that Inflation in the country will rise after it fell for the first time in 11 months in December of 2022. In March, headline inflation rose by 0.13 percentage points from the 21.91 per cent it was in February 2023.
The NBS said, “In March 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.04 per cent compared to February 2023 head-line inflation rate which was 21.91 per cent.”
On a year-on-year basis, March’s headline inflation rate is 6.13 percentage points higher than March 2022 15.92 per cent inflation rate.
The country’s statistics body noted that food and non-alcoholic beverages were the single largest contributors to the increase in inflation.
It said, “The contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index are food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.42 per cent); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuel (3.69 per cent); clothing and footwear (1.69 per cent); transport (1.43 per cent).
“Furnishings, household equipment and maintenance (1.11 per cent); education (0.87 per cent); health (0.66 per cent); miscellaneous goods and services (0.37 per cent); restaurant and hotels (0.27 per cent); alcoholic beverage, tobacco and kola (0.24 per cent); recreation and culture (0.15 per cent) and communication (0.15 per cent).”
According to the NBS, the inflation rate in cities and urban areas was 23.07 per cent in March, while it was 21.09 per cent in rural areas.
Food inflation rate rose to 24.45 per cent in March from 24.35 per cent in February.
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