Prices for cooking oil and fats increased by 26.2% in June 2022 compared to 16.7% registered during the same period a year earlier. 

The increase was reflected mainly in the price levels of cooking fats that escalated from 11.9% to 26.0%, cooking oil from 26.6% to 38.8% and margarine and margarine spreads from 7.4% to 11.9%.

These figures were shared by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) in the June 2022 Namibia Consumer Price Index bulletin (NCPI).

The upward trend of oil prices is adding more pressure on domestic households, especially fat cake sellers. They claim their profits went down and they cannot increase prices because customers run away.

Overall, food and non-alcoholic beverages that account for 16.5% of the NCPI basket recorded an inflation rate of 7% during the month of June 2022 compared to 7.3% registered in the same period of last year. On a monthly basis, price levels for this category increased by 0.7% during the period under review compared to 1.5% recorded a month earlier.

Prices for bread and cereals increased by 7% during June 2022 compared to 5.6% recorded in June 2021. 

“The increase in the annual inflation rate for this sub-category resulted mainly from the increases in the price of bread, cake flour from 2.6% to 15.7%, cakes from 4.6% to 12.6%, rice/malt from -0.1% to 6.8% and maize meal/grain from 1.6% to 7.9%,” reads the report.

Also, NSA stated prices for meat, which mainly contributed to the slow increase of the annual inflation rate of the food sub-category, drastically slowed by 4.5% during the period under review compared to 16% registered during the same period last year. 

The slowdown in the annual inflation rate for meat it said was mainly observed in the price levels of chicken from 25.2% to 4.2%, liver and kidneys from 19.2% to 0.4%, mutton from 15.0% to 2.5% and sausages from 12.8% to 1.7%.