Inflation down to 3.3pc in July as food prices decrease

Dar es Salaam. The annual headline inflation rate for July, 2018 slightly slowed down compared to that of the previous month thanks to a decrease of prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quoted the inflation at 3.3 per cent in July from 3.4 per cent recorded a month earlier.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages are dominant factors in the basket of goods upon which inflation is measured in Tanzania.

They account for 38.5 per cent of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The decrease of the headline inflation explains that the speed of price change for commodities in July has slightly decreased compared to the speed of price change recorded in June.

According to NBS, the inflation rate for food and non alcoholic beverages for the month of July, has decreased to 2.8 per cent from 3.4 per cent recorded in June.

Annual Inflation Rate for food consumed at home and away from home decreased to 3.0 per cent in July from 3.8 per cent recorded in June.

Some food items that contributed to the decrease include: rice by 2.6 per cent, maize flour by 2.0 per cent, fruits by 3.5 per cent, vegetables by 4.1 per cent, fresh cassava by 5.6 per cent and cooking bananas by 2.9 per cent.

With the rice harvesting season on, the price for the product, taken as staple food in a number of communities in the country, has gone down.

The same is true about maize, fruits, cassava and bananas.

In addition, the 12 month index change for non-food products in July has increased to 4.2 per cent from 4.0 per cent recorded a month before.

The Annual Inflation Rate which excludes food and energy for the month of July has stagnated at 1.6 per cent as it was recorded in June.

On the other hand, the Consumer Price Index decreased to 112.44 per cent in July from 112.81 per cent recorded on the preceding months.

According to the report, the decrease of the overall index is mainly attributed to price decrease of food items.