2018-03-16Staff Report 2 " Staff Reporter Windhoek-The All-Items Index for February 2018was estimated at 130.7 compared to 126.3 registered in February last year, an increase of 4.4 index points. According to the latest information from the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), the annual inflation rate for the month of February 2018 decelerated to 3.5 percent down from 7.8 percent recorded in February of the preceding year, representing a slowdown of 4.3 percentage points. During the month of February 2018, the main drivers of the annual inflation rate were education (9.9 percent), transport (6.6 percent) and health (6.2 percent). February 2018 annual inflation rate recorded a notable slowdown in the price levels of Food and non-alcoholic beverages from 11.3 percent to 2.0 percent, Communications from 6.0 percent to -0.1 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels from 9.6 percent to 3.2 percent, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house from 8.5 percent to 0.1 percent. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate slowed to 0.1 percent compared to 1.6 percent registered in the previous month. Inflation is calculated based on a basket of goods and services containing a representative sample of the goods and or services commonly consumed in a country, and weighted in accordance with the relative percentage of expenditure allotted to each of the said goods at household level. The price of these goods and services are then tracked over time, to illustrate the change in the cost of living over time. As spending patterns change, new products and services are added to the basket, and the basket reweighted so as to better capture the current spending patterns of the consumer at the current point in time. " 2018-03-16Staff Report 2
