Prices in Mozambique continued to drop in July, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Measured by the consumer price indices for the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira), inflation for July was negative, at minus 0.2 per cent. This was the third consecutive month of deflation.
Inflation for the first seven months of the year was only 0.38 per cent. Over the previous year (1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020), inflation was 2.8 per cent.
The pattern of price rises and falls in 2020 is not particularly unusual. Prices tend to rise in the first months of the year, then fall in the middle of the year as the harvests come in, before rising again in the final months of the year, as the festive season approaches.
Also read: Mozambique: June deflation makes rate cut possible but risks remain – Oxford Economics
Among the products whose prices fell significantly in July were lettuce (by 12.3 per cent), onions (nine per cent), cabbage (7.8 per cent), brown sugar (5.9 per cent), tomatoes (5.3 per cent), and vegetable oil (2.5 per cent),
This trend was countered by several goods whose prices rose during the month, notably dried cassava (28.5 per cent), lemons (24.6 per cent), unmilled maize (10.6 per cent), bread (4.1 per cent), cigarettes (three per cent) and butter beans (1.9 per cent).
The three cities had slightly different price falls – in Beira, the general level of prices fell by 0.42 per cent, in Nampula by 0.3 per cent, and in Maputo by a mere 0.06 per cent.
Source: AIM via Club of Mozambique
