Report published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation (rate of change in the increase in prices) dropped to 17.75% in June 2021. This is 0.18 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in May 2021 (17.93%).
This implies that prices continued to rise in June 2021 but at a slightly slower rise than it did in May 2021.
According to the report, 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 1.06 percent in June 2021. This is 0.05 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in May 2021 (1.01 percent).
The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending June 2021, over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 15.93 percent, representing a 0.43 percentage point increase over 15.50 percent recorded in May 2021.
The urban inflation rate increased by 18.35 percent (year-on-year) in June 2021 from 18.51 percent recorded in May 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased by 17.16 percent in June 2021 from 17.36 percent in May 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.09 percent in June 2021, up by 0.05 points compared to the rate recorded in May 2021 (1.04 percent), while the rural index also rose by 1.02 percent in June 2021, up by 0.04 percentage points over the rate that was recorded in May 2021 (0.98) percent.
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 16.51 percent in June 2021. This is higher than 16.09 percent reported in May 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in June 2021 was 15.36 percent compared to 14.94 percent recorded in May 2021.