By Mabinty M. Kamara
Report from the Statistics Sierra Leone has revealed a record of a single digit inflation figure for Sierra Leone since six years ago.
“Key findings of the March 2021 CPI (Consumer price Index) show that annual national inflation (Year –on –year) stood at 8.95 percent, down by 1.92 percentage point from 10.17 percent in February 2021 and the monthly inflation is 0.84 percent down by 0. 65 percentage point from 1.49 percent in February 2021,” the report reads in part.
The National Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the measure of the average price level of selected goods and services in the country. Whiles the inflation rate is the percentage rate between the CPI of any two periods which could be monthly, quarterly and yearly known as Year-on-year
According to the report, there was a decline in the prices of Food and non-alcoholic beverages by 4.14 percent point from 19.59 percent in February of 2021 to 15.45 of March in the same year. While Communication also declined by 7.66percentage point from 10.91 percent in February to 2021 to 3.25 percent in March of the same 2021.
However, there were increases in the prices of Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotic from 8.27 percent in February 2021 making the inflation rate on those products to increase by 1.71 percentages.
The inflation rate on transportation was also reported to have increased by 1.34 percentage point Year-on- year from 4.87 percent in February 2021 to 6.21 percent in March of this year.
Data by region shows decline in inflation in three regions. The Eastern region is reported to have moved from 11.96 percent in February 2021 to 8.71 percent in March 2021. Southern region moved from 11.98 percent in February 2021 to 10.51 in March of 2021 and the Northern region from 15.64 percent in February 2021 to 9.93 percent in March 2021. However, there was a slight increase for Western Area from 7.55 percent in February 2021 to 7.90 in March.
“In summary, March indicates a downward trend in the year-on-year inflation rate and is above the estimates of the western area and eastern region but below Southern and Nothern region’s estimate. Also, food inflation went down by 4.14 percentage point and non-food items went down by 0.36 percentage point,” summary of the report reads.
The report noted that in Sierra Leone, prices are collected for 437 items at the prevailing retail market prices from six markets in Freetown and from three markets each from Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Kono for weekly prices. Prices are also collected from other outlets for other items whose prices are less likely to fluctuate weekly.
Inflation and price control has been a major challenge in Sierra Leone over the years, as prices of essential commodities like food stuff increase on a daily basis making cost of living expensive compared to the population’s earning.
In a brief social media write-up, the Statistician General of Statistics Sierra Leone, Professor Osman Sankoh said that the methods of calculating the inflation rate are the same everywhere in the world, noting that it is on that basis that the IMF and the World Bank provide technical support to the office and to statistics offices globally.
“Before we recently published the single-digit inflation rate, we at Stats SL summoned a meeting of IMF, World Bank and the Ministry of Finance to discuss the March 2021 index,” it reads.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 26/04/21
