By: Dwight Links
The overall price movement for goods and services of daily commodities such as food, energy, housing, transportation, and recreation has increased at the rate of 3.5% by the end of July 2025.
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) revealed on Thursday in their latest Consumer Price Index report, highlighting the slow movement in prices between June and July.
“The headline inflation rate rose 3.5% for the 12 months ending July 2025, after rising 4.6% over the 12 months ending July 2024. The inflation rate was 0.1%, a slight increase from 0.0% recorded a month earlier,” Alex Shimuafeni, statistician general for the NSA, said.
Breaking down the various pressures that consumers across the country encountered, in terms of what they pay at the cashier, was illustrated in the aspects of the differing inflation rates that each zone across Namibia had.
“The Zonal inflation rates for the 12 months ending July 2025 revealed that Zone 1 (Kavango East, Kavango West, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa, and Zambezi regions) recorded the highest inflation rate of 3.9%.
Followed by Zone 3 (//Kharas, Erongo, Hardap, Omaheke regions), which recorded a headline inflation rate of 3.6%.
Zone 2 (Khomas region) recorded an annual inflation rate of 3.1%,” the report explains.
The consumption patterns across the various regions outlined the most purchased items and their impacts on the consumers who use them. Price differences for the same items indicate considerable price differences.
“Analysis of the average retail prices of selected products for July 2025 revealed that consumers in Zone 3 paid the highest price for maize meal 5kg at N$79.19, which is followed by Zone 1 at N$71.99.
While consumers in Zone 2 paid the least price of N$70.87 for maize meal. For tinned pilchards in tomato sauce (400g) for the other price difference indicator as consumers in Zone 2 paid the highest price of N$37.58 followed by Zone 3 at N$37.04, while consumers in Zone 1 paid the least price of N$35.99,” the report added.
Namibia’s core inflation, which covers the less volatile commodities, stood at 3.9%, which is slightly higher than the headline inflation rate of 3.5%.
The biggest contributors towards the latest analysis come from the daily consumables of the Food & Non-Alcoholic bracket of goods that is measured by the report.
“Major contributions to the 3.5% annual inflation for July 2025 were mainly from the ‘Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages’, which contributed 1.2% points.
This was followed by the ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ category, which contributed 0.9 % points, and lastly the ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ that had 0.8 % points,” the report indicates.
“The term ‘core inflation’ describes a measure of inflation that excludes certain volatile elements from the overall inflation calculation. These volatile elements typically include food and energy prices, which tend to experience significant price fluctuations due to factors such as weather conditions, geopolitical events, or changes in supply and demand,” the report outlines for clarity.
According to the NSA, this report examines the performance of the monthly inflation rate in Namibia as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
The inflation rate measures the change in the CPI for the month under review compared to the previous month (month-on-month changes) as well as to the corresponding month in the previous year (year-on-year changes).
“The inflation rate is vital in formulating economic policy, especially conducting monetary policy to maintain price stability and control consumers’ spending. The Consumer Price Index is published about 15 days after the end of the reference month to which it relates,” the NSA explains.
