Recent report published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 17.38% (year-on-year) in July 2021.
This is 0.37 percent points lower than the rate recorded in June 2021 (17.75%). This implies that prices continued to rise in July 2021 but at a slower rise than it did in June 2021.
Increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index.
On month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.93 percent in July 2021. This was 0.13 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in June 2021 (1.06) percent.
The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending July 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.30 percent, showing 0.37 percent point rise from 15.93 percent recorded in June 2021.
The urban inflation rate increased by 18.01 percent (year-on-year) in July 2021 from 18.35 percent recorded in June 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased by 16.75 percent in July 2021 from 17.16 percent in June 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.98 percent in July 2021, down by 0.11 points against the rate recorded in June 2021 (1.09 percent), while the rural index also rose by 0.87 percent in July 2021, down by 0.15 points over the rate that was recorded in June 2021 (1.02 percent).
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 16.89 percent in July 2021. This is higher than 16.51 percent reported in July 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in July 2021 was 15.73 percent compared to 15.36 percent recorded in June 2021.