Maputo — Mozambique's annual rate of inflation reached 10.3 per cent in February, according to the figures compiled by the National Statistics Institute (INE), drawing on the consumer price indices from all the main urban areas.
Inflation in February alone was 0.97 per cent, and in the first two months of the year it was 1.96 per cent.
This pushed annual inflation (1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023) to 10.3 per cent. This compares with the 9.78 per cent annual inflation calculated in January.
The products that contributed most to the February inflation rate were cabbage (up by 16.5 per cent), unprocessed maize (9.1 per cent), tomatoes (11.7 per cent), and lettuce (10 per cent).
But the average prices for some key products fell over the month - butane cooking gas by 3.4 per cent, coconuts (2.6 per cent), live chickens (2.4 per cent), unshelled rice (1.2 per cent), vegetable oil (0.8 per cent), and dried fish (0.5 per cent).
Of all the cities covered by the INE, Inhambane had the highest annual inflation, of 13.61 per cent, followed by Quelimane (12.76 per cent), and Chimoio (10.91 per cent). The lowest rates were in Maputo (eight per cent) and Beira (9.86 per cent).