Recent report published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation in the month of April 2022 increased to 16.82% from 15.92% reported in March 2022.
This is 1.3 percent points lower compared to the rate recorded in April 2021 (18.12) percent. This means that the headline inflation rate slowed down in April 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 a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased to 1.76 percent in April 2022, this is a 0.02 percent rate higher than the rate recorded in March 2022 (1.74) percent.
The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending April 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period is 16.45 percent, showing a 0.1 percent decrease compare to the 16.54 percent recorded in March 2022.
The urban inflation rate increased to 17.35 percent (year-on-year) in April 2022 from 18.68 percent recorded in April 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 16.32 percent in April 2022 from 17.57 percent in April 2021
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose to 1.78 percent in April 2022, up by 0.02 from the rate recorded in March 2022 (1.76), while the rural index also rose to 1.74 percent in April 2022, up by 0.01 from the rate that was recorded in March 2022 (1.73) percent.
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.01 percent in April 2022. This is lower than 17.10 percent reported in March 2022, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in April 2022 is 15.91 percent compared to 16.00 percent recorded in March 2022.