Mozambique once again saw a drop in inflation in March, when it registered 3%. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), in February and January inflation stood at 4% and 4.19% respectively.
“In the period under review, the divisions of Education, Restaurants, Hotels, Cafés and Similar and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages were the ones with the biggest price rises, varying by 10.39%, 5.93% and 4.94% respectively,” INE said in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.
Another decisive sector in the rise in prices in March was the Clothing and Footwear division, which stood out by contributing a positive 0.04 percentage points to the total monthly variation.
The government recently announced that the country would see economic growth of 5 per cent in 2023, compared to 4.4 per cent in 2022, highlighting an “economic expansion” that exceeded the regional average of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“Economic growth for 2023 reached 5 per cent, compared to 4.4 per cent in 2022, driven by Extractive Industries, Tourism, Agriculture, Transport and Communications, among others,” said Ludovina Bernardo, spokesperson for the Executive, according to whom the growth was also the result of policies and reforms implemented during the year, especially the economic reforms adopted to make private sector activities “more dynamic” and to attract investment.
“In this context, there was a positive trend in average inflation, which registered 7.1 per cent against an initial forecast of 11.5 per cent. Net International Reserves were above the three months forecast in the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget and reached the 4.3 months mark for covering imports of non-factorial goods and services, translating into greater credibility and greater capacity to absorb shocks to the balance of payments,” he added.