A new monthly report has indicated that, as of November 2019, the spike in inflation and the cost of living shows no signs of abating, as it did for the past four consecutive months, whereby headline inflation has increased by 20.8 percent.
In the same token, according to a report from the Central Statistics Agency (CSA), the year-on-year food inflation has also increased by 24.5 percent.
In this regard, the report shows that an increment in the prices of cereals such as Teff, Barely, Sorghum was observed. The same trend was noticed in beef and injera as well.
The price increase in the aforementioned food items, “Continued in the current month, even though the increases were not as exaggerated as in the previous months,” reads the report.
It can be recalled that last month, the headline and food inflation as of October 2019 was 18.6 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively.
Contrary to the continuous price hikes in most cereal crops, a marginal price decline was observed in wheat and maize, in some regions of the country. At the same time, the same price decline was also seen on most vegetables such as Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes, Cabbages as well as Carrots.
In addition to food items, non-food items have also shown a hike in price, increasing by 16.4 percent.
In this regard, the report from the Agency attributes the increase in non-food items to “Rise in the prices of clothing and footwear, house rent, housing repairs and maintenance, energy (Firewood and Charcoal), household goods, furnishings, healthcare, transport and especially in household cars.”
Looking into regions, the record-high increase in headline inflation was reported in the Somali Regional State followed by Beinshangul Gumuz and Dire Dawa, witnessing an increase by 26.7, 24.9, and 24.1 percent, respectively.
It is to be recalled that back in May, the headline inflation showed an 11-month high of 16.2 percent whereas food inflation increased from 14.5 to 20.7 percent. In the same way, non-food inflation showed a marginal increase as well.
Following this, the government has setup a taskforce to bring a solution for the continuous rise in inflation. With this objective in mind, the force is said to forward its recommendations to the macroeconomic committee, which is chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD).
