Country Report Namibia March 2011

Economic performance : Higher fuel prices push up inflation

Year-on-year inflation rose to 3.5% in January, the highest since September 2010. The increase was mainly the result of higher domestic fuel prices, which were increased in mid-January following a sharp rise in global crude oil prices. Whereas food price inflation slowed to 1.7%, housing and utilities inflation almost doubled to 11.2%, the electricity, gas and other fuels sub-component rising by 10.6%. In contrast, transport inflation fell slightly to 2.9% even though this is the index component normally showing the greatest correlation with fuel price changes. However, increases of 6-8% in the cost of operating personal and public transport were offset by a fall in vehicle purchase price inflation (the heaviest weighted sub-component) to just over 1%. Domestic fuel prices were raised again on February 16th by 4.5-4.6%.

Consumer prices
(national consumer price index; % change, year on year)
	2010												2011
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
Fooda	5.3	5.3	4.1	3.9	2.8	2.5	3.9	2.2	3.2	1.7	2.4	2.2	1.7
Housing & utilitiesb	5.1	5.3	5.3	5.1	5.4	5.3	6.5	6.5	6.2	6.2	6.1	6.1	11.2
Transportc	9.4	9.3	8.7	7.2	7.6	6.6	5.0	4.7	3.1	4.2	3.9	3.0	2.9
All items	6.3	6.3	5.6	5.0	4.7	4.3	4.6	3.6	3.7	3.2	3.4	3.1	3.5
Goods	6.7	7.1	6.2	5.4	3.2	2.6	3.1	1.7	1.7	0.9	1.2	1.1	1.9
Services	5.6	4.8	5.5	6.1	7.2	7.2	7.2	7.0	7.2	7.3	7.2	6.6	6.2
12-month average	8.3	7.9	7.5	7.0	6.6	6.2	6.0	5.7	5.4	5.1	4.8	4.5	4.2
a Weight of 29.6% in index. b Weight of 20.6% in index; includes water, electricity, gas and other domestic fuels. c Weight of 14.8% in index.
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics.

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