INFLATION RATE NEGLIGIBLE IN MARCH

The National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Wednesday that the rate of inflation in Mozambique in March, as measured by the consumer price indices for the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira), was negligible, at just 0.06 per cent.This is a substantial reduction on the inflation rates of January (1.84 per cent) and of February (1.56 per cent). The INE puts the combined inflation for the first three months of the year at 3.48 per cent. This is higher than the inflation rate for all of 2014, which was 1.93 per cent.Most of the price rises in March were for foodstuffs – thus the price of onions rose by 2,7 per cent, of tomatoes by 2.4 per cent, of groundnuts by 2.2 per cent, and of butter beans by 1.37 per cent,But the prices of fresh and dried fish, coconuts and cabbage all fell. Together these products accounted for a fall of 0.14 percentage points in the inflation rate.As expected, it was food prices that accounted for most of the inflation on the first quarter. Food was responsible for a price rise of 3.08 per cent out of the total quarterly inflation rate of 3.48 per cent.The three cities did not behave in identical fashion, The March inflation rate was at its highest in Maputo (0.12 per cent), followed by Beira (0.07 per cent). But in Nampula prices fell (by 0.37 per cent).