By:Justicia Shipena
The annual inflation for Namibia’s electric power generation, transmission and distribution declined in the fourth quarter of 2022.
This is according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) in its recently released Namibia Producer Price Index bulletin.
The bulletin stated that in the same period the index for electric power generation, transmission and distribution increased to 110.2 basis points as opposed to 111.0 basis points registered in the same quarter of 2021.
“The annual inflation rate for local electric power generation, transmission and distribution declined by 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022,” the NSAsaid.
This is compared to an increase of 3.8% recorded in the same quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, the producer price index for mining and quarrying during the period under review was recorded to have increased to 136.4 basis points up from 122.3 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021.
This, the bulletin said, translates into an annual inflation rate of 11.5%.
The index for mining of uranium and thorium ores rose to 97.0 basis points, resulting in an increase of 39.9% when compared to 69.3 basis points recorded during the same period in 2021.
The bulletin further noted that the category of mining of other non-ferrous metal ores includes mining of copper, lead, zinc, and gold increasing by 10.0%, from 172.9 basis points recorded in the same period of 2021 to 190.3 basis points registered in the same quarter of 2022.
While, other mining and quarrying rose to 156.8 basis points from 124.6 basis points recorded during the same quarter a year ago.
This, according to NSA, resulted in a year-on-year inflation rate of 25.8%.
At the same time, during this quarter the index for manufacturing stood at 176.6 basis points, which resulted in a 4.6% growth in prices.
NSA said the processing and preserving of meat category index increased to 190.4 basis points, an increase of 10.0 basis points when compared to 180.4 basis points recorded in the same quarter of 2021.
“The annual inflation rate for this category stood at 5.5% in the quarter under review, an increase of 4.1 percentage points on the rate of 1.4% recorded in the same quarter of the preceding year.”
The manufacturing index, which encompasses processing and preserving of meat, as well as manufacturing of malt liquors and malt, soft drinks, production of mineral waters and other bottled waters, manufacture of cement, lime and plaster and manufacture of basic precious goods stood at 176.6 basis points from 168.9 basis points.
NSA stated that in the period, manufacturing of malt liquors and malt stood at 136.4 basis points compared to 131.2 basis points recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
This resulted in an annual inflation rate of 4.0% in the prices of goods manufactured within this sector compared to 5.2% obtained in the same quarter of last year.
The index for the manufacture of basic precious and non-ferrous metals was recorded at 247.0 basis points during the quarter under review.
This showed a slight decrease of 0.8 basis points when compared to 247.8 basis points recorded in the fourth quarter of the preceding year.
The annual inflation rate for this sector declined by 0.3% in the quarter under review.
It concluded that the index price for water collection, treatment and supply continued to be stagnant at 144.3 basis points since the second quarter of 2019.
NSA said the annual percentage change in the producer prices index for the category remained unchanged at 0.0% since the second quarter of 2020.