Mozambique registered a general price decrease from April to May, according to data collected by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Beira was the city whose prices fell most in the fifth month of the year.

The data is for the three largest urban centers in Mozambique, namely Maputo, Beira and Nampula. The general price decrease was mainly influenced by the food and non-alcoholic beverages division which, in the total monthly variation, contributed with 0.34 percentage points (pp) negative.

As for the monthly variation per product, it is worth mentioning the drop in prices of tomatoes (10.3%), coconut (10.9%), fresh fish (1.6%), cabbage (7.7%), cabbage (10.4%), lettuce (6.2%) and motorcycles (2.3%). These contributed, in total monthly variation, about negative 0.51pp.

In fact, the decline could have been much larger, if products such as complete restaurant meals (1.3%), wheat bread (2.3%), onions (3.4%), dried fish (1.0%), cassava flour (13.3%), rice grain (0.6%) and live chicken (0.8%), had not countered the downward trend, by contributing about 0.25pp positive.

This is the second consecutive month in which the general price level falls in Mozambique, with last month the country recorded deflation of 0.03 percent, before which, however, it did not exceed two percent, in January inflation was 1.18 percent, February, 1.34, the highest of the year, and in March it fell to 0.86 percentage points.

In cumulative terms, from January to May of the current year, the country recorded a price increase of around 3.07%. The divisions of food and non-alcoholic beverages, with 1.78 percentage points and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 0.37 were the most prominent in the overall upward price trend.