Recent report published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that the consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation in March 2022, increased to 15.92% from 15.70% reported in February 2022.
This is 2.25 percent points lower compared to 18.17 percent recorded in March 2021. This means that the headline inflation rate slowed down in March 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year.
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 to 1.74 percent in March 2022, this is 0.11 percent points higher than the rate recorded in February 2022 (1.63 percent). The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending March 2022 over the average previous twelve months period is 16.54 percent, this shows 0.19 percent points decrease compare to 16.73 percent recorded in February 2022.
The Urban Inflation rate increased to 16.44 percent year-on-year in March 2022 showing a decline of 2.32 percent points from the rate recorded in March 2021 (18.76 percent). In the same vein, the Rural Inflation increased to 15.42 percent in March 2022 with a decrease of 2.18 percent points from 17.60 percent recorded in March 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the Urban Index rose to 1.76 percent in March 2022, this was up by 0.11 percent points from the rate recorded in February 2022 (1.65 percent). The Rural In[1]dex rose to 1.73 percent in March 2022, with 0.12 percent point increase from 1.61 percent recorded in February 2022.