The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region has recorded a 1.3 percent increase in the year-on-year inflation rate due to the escalation in prices of goods and services. This has been measured by the Harmonized Consumer Price Index (HCPI-COMESA) indicating an upsurge from 20.5 per cent recorded in June 2018 to 21.8 per cent in July 2019. However, this figure is a drop from the 22.5 per cent recorded the same time the year earlier.
According to the HCPI-COMESA monthly news release issued in Lusaka, the month-on-month inflation rate in the region stood at 3. 9 per cent for the month of July 2019, up from 2.3 per cent registered in June 2019. It was 2.9 per cent in July 2018.
The HCPI-COMESA comprises of twelve divisions of expenditure. These divisions registered the following average price changes during the month of July 2019 compared with July 2018.
Some of the items that necessitated the increase include food & non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, health ,transport, communication, recreation and culture, education, restaurants and hotels, miscellaneous Goods and services also contributed to the rise in the figure.
Participating Member States that contribute to HCPI-COMESA registered the following rates of total inflation in July 2019 compared to July 2018:-
Burundi(+1.8 per cent); Democratic Republic of Congo (+4.1 per cent); Djibouti (+6.8 per cent); Egypt (+9.2 per cent); Ethiopia (+11.7 per cent); Kenya(+6.0 per cent); Madagascar (+4.8 per cent); Malawi (+9.6 per cent); Mauritius(+2.1 per cent); Rwanda (+1.7 per cent); Seychelles (+1.5 per cent); Sudan (+54.3 per cent); Eswatini (+1.9 per cent); Uganda (+2.6 per cent); Zambia (+10.5 per cent); and Zimbabwe (+257.2 per cent).
