LUSAKA, (The Southern African Times) – Zambia’s annual inflation rate edged up by 2.3 percentage points in January from the previous month, the country’s statistics agency said Thursday.
The annual inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 21.5 percent in January from 19.2 percent recorded in December 2020, according to the Zambia Statistics Agency.
“This means that on average, prices of goods and services increased by 21.5 percent between January 2020 and January 2021,” Mulenga Musepa, acting director of the agency said in a monthly release.
He attributed the increase to price increases in food items.
Data showed that the annual food inflation for January was recorded at 25.6 percent compared to 20.2 percent recorded in December 2020.
This was mainly due to increases in prices of food items such as bread, cereals, meats, fish, chickens and vegetables, he added.
On the other hand, the annual non-food inflation for January was recorded at 16.7 percent, down from 18.1 percent recorded in December 2020.
The monthly inflation also rose to 3.7 percent in January from 3.2 percent in December 2020, representing an increase of 0.5 percentage points.
The increase in the monthly inflation, he said, was attributed to general price movements of both food and non-food items.
