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The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released the Consumer Price Index Report with the inflation index hitting a five-month high of 15.92 per cent in March 2022.
In the Report released by the NBS on Friday the 15.92 per cent is the highest rate the country has recorded since October 2021.
The CPI was 15.60 per cent in January before moving higher to 15.70 per cent in February this year.
The NBS said, “In March 2022, the Consumer Price Index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased to 15.92 percent on year-on-year basis.
“This is 2.25 percent points lower compared to 18.17 percent, the rate recorded in March 2021. This means that the headline inflation rate slowed down in March 2022 when compared to the same month in the precious days year.”
The Report stated further that the Urban Inflation rate rose to 16.44 per cent year-on-year in March 2022, showing a decline of 2.32 per cent points from the 18.76 per cent recorded in March 2021.
Similarly, the Report explained that Rural Inflation rose to 15.42 per cent in March 2022 with a decrease of 2.18 per cent points from 17.60 per cent recorded in March 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the Urban Index rose to 1.76 per cent in March 2022. This, the Report noted, was up by 0.11 per cent points from the 1.65 per cent recorded in February 2022.
For the Rural Index, it said this rose to 1.73 per cent in March 2022, with 0.12 per cent point increase from 1.61 per cent recorded in February 2022.
“The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 17.10 per cent in March 2022.
“This was lower than 17.29 percent reported in February 2022, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in March 2022 stood at 16.00 percent compared to 16.18 percent recorded in February 2022,” it added.
The March inflation figure is in line with a similar increase recorded in the month of February following the rise in energy prices caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine.