File photo: LusaPrices in Mozambique fell again in August, down 0.28% from July, while year-on-year inflation slowed to 6.45%, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced today.
According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August, the country recorded a monthly fall in prices of 0.28%, slightly higher than the 0.26% deflation observed in July. The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages division made the largest contribution to this result, with a negative impact of 0.33 percentage points.
Among the products that contributed most to the fall in prices were tomatoes, which fell by 16.3%, lettuce (9.8%), onions (2.8%), butter beans (1.6%), cabbage (6.7%), horse mackerel (0.6%) and complete meals in restaurants (0.3%). Together, these products reduced the monthly variation by around 0.38 percentage points.
By contrast, increases were recorded in the prices of cement (3.1%), dried mango (53.0%), live chicken (1.4%), grain maize (3.1%), dried fish (0.5%), fresh fish (0.6%) and dried prawns (3.3%), contributing around 0.14 percentage points to monthly inflation.
The August CPI also shows that inflation accumulated since January slowed to 4.83%, from 5.12% recorded through July, while year-on-year inflation slowed from 7.48% in July to 6.45% in August, reflecting the second consecutive monthly fall in prices.
According to INE, Transport and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages remain the divisions exerting the greatest pressure on prices. In accumulated inflation, they contributed 2.05 and 1.52 percentage points, respectively, while in the year-on-year comparison they recorded price increases of 14.77% and 8.91%.
Between January and August, the largest contributions to the accumulated increase in prices came from diesel, semi-collective urban and suburban passenger transport, fresh fish, petrol, taxi services, cabbage and dried fish, which together accounted for around 2.82 percentage points of accumulated inflation.
An analysis by city shows that all collection centres recorded deflation in August, led by Xai-Xai, with a 1.21% reduction in prices, followed by Beira (0.51%), Nampula (0.32%) and Tete (0.29%). Maputo and Quelimane both recorded a decline of 0.12%.
Year-on-year, Tete continues to have the highest inflation rate in the country, at 10.71%, followed by Inhambane province (8.32%) and Chimoio (8.25%), while Maputo recorded the lowest rate, at 4.08%.
Prices in Mozambique increased by 3.23% over the whole of 2025, according to previous INE data, while accumulated inflation for 2024 stood at 4.15%, below the 5.3% recorded in 2023 and the peak of almost 13% reached in July 2022.
The Bank of Mozambique kept its benchmark interest rate at 9.25% in July, acknowledging short-term inflationary pressures but forecasting that inflation would remain in single digits over the medium term.
Source: Lusa