Tanzania’s
year-on-year inflation rate rose for a fourth consecutive month in
February on the back of higher food and fuel prices, staying in step
with trends at east African neighbours Kenya and Uganda.
Tanzania’s National
Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday that consumer prices rose 2.2
percent in February, helping push the country’s inflation rate to 7.5
percent from 6.4 percent a month earlier.
The International
Monetary Fund said on Friday it expected food and fuel prices to drive
inflation higher this year, and analysts warned on Saturday it could
soon hit double digits.
“All signs show
Tanzania’s inflation rate is going up and up this year,” said Honest
Ngowi, an economics lecturer at Mzumbe University.
“Food production
hasn’t been good in Tanzania. The future is even worse for the
inflation rate, because power is still a major problem, the fuel crisis
is still biting and the Japanese earthquake could impact on global fuel
prices.”
The statistics
office said in a statement that the food and non-alcoholic beverages
component of the consumer price basket rose 3.0 percent in the month,
after rises of 2.9 percent in January and 2.6 percent in December.
Food and
non-alcoholic drinks have a 47.8 percent weighting in the consumer
price basket, so they have a major impact on the overall inflation rate
in the region’s second largest economy.
The monthly food
price rise left the year-on-year rate of inflation for the component at
9.2 percent, behind the inflation rate for housing, water, electricity,
gas and other fuel, which was running at 11.1 percent in February.
Inflation rates in
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, the three largest economies in the East
African Community, last slowed in October. Since then, higher food and
fuel prices have helped push year-on-year rates to 6 percent or above.
Tanzania had the
highest inflation rate in February, ahead of Kenya’s at 6.5 percent and
Uganda’s at 6.0 percent, and analysts said chronic power shortages in
Tanzania may also contribute to rising inflation in the coming months.
“The inflation rate
is going to accelerate further. We still haven’t resolved the power
crisis in the country,” said Humphrey Moshi, an economics professor at
the University of Dar es Salaam.
“The disturbances in the Middle East are spreading to more oil-producing countries.
This will obviously lead to higher crude oil prices,” he said.
“If the government
doesn’t take serious measures, we will definitely see a double-digit
inflation rate in the second half of this year,” Moshi said.
Reuters
