Tanzania Annual Inflation Further Increase to 6.4% in March 2017

The National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania (NBS) indicates that the Annual Headline Inflation Rate increased 6.4% in March 2017, from to 5.5% in February 2017.

The NBS explains that the speed of price increase for commodities in the year ending March 2017 has increased as compared to the speed of price increase recorded for the year ended February 2017.

The overall index went up to 108.44 in March 2017, from 106.97 recorded in February 2017. Food and Food and Non Alcoholic Beverages Inflation Rate for the Month of March 2017 has increased to 11.0% from 8.7% in February.

Food and Non Food Inflation Rates
Annual Inflation Rate for food consumed at home and away from home has increased to 11.7% in March 2017 from 9.3% recorded in February 2017.

In addition, the 12 month index change for non-food products has stagnated at 3.6% in March 2017 as it was recorded in February, 2017.

Inflation Rate excluding Food and Energy
The Annual Inflation Rate which excludes food and energy for the month of March 2017 has stagnated at 2.2% as it was recorded in February 2017.

Monthly Headline Inflation Rate
The Monthly Headline Inflation Rate for March 2017 has increased by 1.4% compared to an increase of 1.0% recorded in February 2017.

The overall index has increased to 108.44 in March 2017 from 106.97 recorded in February 2017.

The increase of the overall index is attributed to price increase of some food and non-food items.

Some food items that contributed to such an increase include the price of rice, which increased by 4.7%, sugar by 3.9%, maize flour by 6.7%, sorghum grain by 4.1%, cooking banana by 4.6%, cassava fresh by 7.7%, vegetables by 4.0% and dried sardines by 3.2%.

Some Non-food items that contributed to such an increase include the price of cooking gas which increased by 11.9%, petrol by 4.6% and diesel by 3.2%.

Purchasing Power
The purchasing power of 100 Tanzanian Shillings has reached TZS 92 and 21 cents in March 2017 compared to TZS 93 and 48 cents in February 2017.

Tanzania Inflation

Tanzania’s Annual Average Headline Inflation Rate (from January to December, 2016) has decreased to 5.2% in 2016 from 5.6% recorded in 2015 (from January to December, 2015).

This decrease was mainly attributed to the decrease in prices for food items. Annual Average Inflation Rate for food Items decreased to 7.6% in 2016 from 8.6% in 2015.

The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Monetary Policy Statement of June 2016 indicates that the BOT target is to keep inflation close to 5%.

Tanzania’s inflation rate is projected to remain stable at 5% throughout H1 2017 and to remain constant in the medium term.