Tanzania’s inflation rate took a significant dip in June, dropping to 3.6% from the 4.0% recorded in May, as revealed in the latest report by the central bank of Tanzania on July 24. This decrease sets a remarkable record within the East African Community, where economies have been grappling with inflationary challenges resulting from various factors such as fluctuations in global commodity prices, the Ukraine conflict, drought, and political unrest in certain nations like Kenya. Attributing the decline to both food and non-food prices moderating, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) pointed out that this aligns with the overall downward trend in consumer goods prices on the global market.
Comparatively, Uganda’s official inflation rate stood at 4.9%, Kenya’s at 7.9%, Rwanda’s at 20.4%, Burundi’s at 28.9%, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s at 26.7% in May. Meanwhile, South Sudan reported an official figure of 5.6% in June. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) corroborated the BoT’s figures, indicating that food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation fell to 7.8% in June from 8.5% in May, with the non-food inflation rate also decreasing to 1.8% in June from 2.1% recorded in May.
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The annual core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items like unprocessed food and energy, exhibited a decline to 1.7% in June – the lowest since July 2018 – down from 2.0% during the previous month. Moreover, core consumer prices experienced a slight dip to 109.5 from 109.7 points. In June, the National Consumer Price Index recorded a marginal increase of 0.1%, compared to 0.2% in May, with a year-on-year rise in the overall index to 112.8 in 2023 from 108.9 in June 2022. The NBS attributed the upward trend in June to price increases in non-food items, citing firewood, and corrective glasses, whose prices increased by 5.1% and 1.8%, respectively. Other non-food items that recorded an increase in prices in June include clothes, clothing materials, footwear, and tenant rentals.
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