According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) collected last December, the cities of Maputo, Beira, Nampula, Quelimane, Tete, Chimoio, Xai-xai and Inhambane recorded inflation of around 1.35% (compared to 0.58% in November), which further increased the cost of living.

The INE document quoted by "Carta" says that the food and non-alcoholic beverages division saw the biggest rise in prices, contributing around 1.22 percentage points (pp) to the total monthly variation.

In terms of individual products, the most notable increases were in the prices of tomatoes (10.0%), coconuts (14.7%), onions (13.0%), horse mackerel (2.9%), corn kernels (6.4%), live chickens (4.2%) and fresh fish (1.8%), all of which contributed around 0.89pp to the monthly change.

"Some products, especially lemons (16.6%), cooking oil (0.5%), butane gas in cylinders (3.5%), conditioner creams and hair gel (2.1%), pineapples (27.8%), bar soap (0.5%) and yams (7.1%), bucked the trend of rising prices by contributing around 0.66pp to the total monthly change," says INE.

In general terms, from January to December 2022, the institution calculated that the country recorded an increase in prices of around 10.91%, influenced by the food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport divisions, which contributed approximately 6.56pp and 2.77pp to the total accumulated variation, respectively.