WERNER MENGES, Windhoek | Tuesday 4.15pm.
THE Namibian economy quietly made history last year when the official average inflation rate for the year sunk to its lowest level since independence, the National Planning Commission’s Central Statistics Office said on Monday.
The annual Namibian inflation rate, as measured in the capital, Windhoek, averaged 6,21% last year — compared to the 1997 average of 8,85%. It is also the lowest average annual rate in Windhoek since the comparable 1972 figure of 5,3%.
Namibia’s official average annual inflation rate has now been below the 10% mark for three years running which is also the best performance since the first years of the 1970s.
Despite last year’s lower annual average, the annual inflation rate in December was 8,67 % — higher than the previous month’s 7,65%.
With that increase, the annual rate has been on the rise continuously since the low point of 4,34% was reached in May last year.
The CSO also announced that the average annual inflation rate for food prices was 2,6% last year — considerably lower than the overall average inflation rate for the year.
In the year to December 1998, food prices in Windhoek increased by 5,8%, according to the CSO. Of the other major components of the interim consumer price index (CPI) which is used to calculate the inflation rate, the housing, fuel and power index increased by 12,2% in the year to December, the household goods and services index increased by 7% and the transport and communications index increased by 6,6%.
One of the minor components of the CPI, the beverages and tobacco index rose of 15,1%, the largest increase in the year since December 1997. Clothing and footwear prices rose by 10,1%, the CSO said, while recreation, entertainment, education and culture went up by 7,8% and medical care and health services by 6,1%. — The Namibian