DESPITE CURRENCY DEPRECIATION, INFLATION REMAINS LOW

Despite the recent depreciation of the Mozambican currency against both the US dollar and the South African rand, prices inside the country remain relatively stable.According to the latest figures, issued on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), inflation in September, as measured by the consumer price indices of the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira) was just 0.27 per cent.This brings the accumulated inflation for the first nine months of the year to 1.51 per cent, and inflation over the past 12 months (1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015) to 2.73 per cent.There were significant price increases for some foodstuffs in September – notably maize (a rise of 5.5 per cent), maize flour (two per cent), butter beans (2.5 per cent), coconuts (2.4 per cent) and fresh fish (3.1 per cent). As for non-food items, there was a doubling in prices for tickets to football matches. The price of mobile phone communications went up by 1.5 per cent.The price of dried fish, cabbage, onions and lettuce fell. Taken together, this was a price fall of 0.12 per cent.Inflation was not the same in the three cities – it was at its highest in Nampula, at 0.44 per cent. In Beira September inflation was 0.34 per cent, while in Maputo it was only 0.12 per cent.