Inflation rate in March remains unchanged

 Daily News Reporter

TANZANIA: THE annual headline inflation rate for March this year has stagnated at 3.0 per cent as it was in the previous month implying that the prices of various goods during the period under review remained unchanged.

“The stagnation of the headline inflation explains that the speed of price change for commodities for the year ended March has remained the same as that recorded for the year ended February,” the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) report for March has unveiled.

The overall index went up from 112.13 recorded in March in the previous year to 115.51 recorded in March this year, food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation rate has decreased to 1.4 per cent from 1.8 per cent recorded in the preceding month.

On the other hand, the annual inflation rate for all items without food and non alcoholic beverages for March has increased to 3.7 per cent from the 3.5 per cent that was recorded in February this year.

The computation of the core index excludes items with volatile prices as unprocessed food, energy and utilities except maize flour.

The exclusion of volatile prices from the total NCPI provides a more stable Inflation rate figure for policymakers. The core index covers 297 items and the share of weight to total NCPI weight is 73.9 per cent.

The inflation rate for the core index in March this year has increased to 3.9 per cent from 3.7 per cent recorded in February this year.

The NCPI between February and March has increased by 0.8 per cent with the increase attributed to price increases for some food and non-food items.

Some food items that contributed to an increase in the index include wheat grains by 1.2 per cent, finger millet grains by 2.3 per cent, beef by 4.0 per cent sardines by 5.4 per cent, and fruits by 2.8 per cent. It recorded further that vegetables by per cent was 4.7, Irish potatoes (2.3 per cent), sweet potatoes (1.4 per cent), cassava (5.7 per cent), cooking bananas (4.4 per cent), beans (1.9 per cent) and peas by 1.5 per cent. Some Non-Food items that contributed to an increase in the index include firewood by 3.4 per cent; diesel by 1.6 per cent, petrol by 3.0 per cent and passenger transport by road (bus, taxi, motorcycle, train) by 1.8 per cent.