Windhoek — The prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased in October by about 4.9 percentage points from September.

The newly released monthly index for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased to 235.6 points, according to the Namibian Statistics Agency Consumer Price Index for October.

The Statistician General Dr John Steytler said the increase was due to increases in all the sub-groups comprising the food and non alcoholic group, with the exception of fish which decreased by 0.1 percent; milk, cheese and eggs decreasing by 1.2 percent and a decrease of 0.9 percent for coffee, tea and cocoa.

The index is calculated as a weighted arithmetic average of the proportionate changes in the price of goods and services in the basket, with the weights representing the expenditure share on each commodity from the 1993-94 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey. The prices are collected from more than 650 retail outlets in eight localities.

The All Index for October increased by 2.2 percentage points, up from 195.3 in September 2012 to 197.5. This resulted in a monthly inflation rate of 1.1 percent, compared to the September 2012 rate of 0.8 percent, a difference of 0.3 percentage points. This increase resulted from monthly increases recorded in all the components comprising the Namibia Consumer Price Index (CPI).

"The annual inflation rate for October stood at 7.1 percent compared to 6.1 percent recorded during the same period last year," said Steytler.

The annual inflation rates for the major groups comprising the CPI were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 10.1 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 7.7 percent and transport at 6.1 percent.

The inflation rate for clothing and footwear was at 0.3 percent. The furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance inflation was at 0.1 percent, while the percentage for health was 0.2 and for transport 1.2 percent.