Food and non-alcoholic beverages
Food and non-alcoholic beverages which accounts for 16.5 percent of the NCPI basket, registered an annual inflation rate of 5.9 percent in December 2024, compared to 7.4 percent witnessed during December 2023. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate in December 2024 increased to 1.0 percent, up from 0.7 percent recorded in the previous month.
This Month Analysis
The Food sub-category accounts for 14.8 percent of the consumer basket in the NCPI. Within the Food
sub-component, ‘Bread, and cereals’ accounts for the highest weight of Food items that consumers purchase
with a weight of (4.8%), followed by Meat (3.5%); ‘Sugar, jam, honey, syrups, chocolate, and confectionery’
(1.4%); Vegetables and ‘Milk, cheese, and eggs’ (1.2%) each.
Vegetables including potatoes and other tubers prices increased annually by 4.4 percent during December
2024 compared to 17.8 percent witnessed in December 2023. The slow increase was mainly reflected in the
price levels of ‘Mealie/corn cob’ (from 39.7% to 0.5%); ‘Potatoes’ (from 40.9% to 2.3%); Lettuce (from 18.0%
to -3.7%); Cabbage (from 24.7% to 7.4%); and ‘Tinned vegetables, pickled vegetables’ (from 16.0% to -0.7%).
The average prices of Milk, cheese, and eggs annual inflation rate increased by 1.5 percent, a slow growth
compared to the 13.2 percent observed in December 2023. Product subcategories that drove much of the
downward trend includes Baby milk powdered (from 17.1% to 1.1%); ‘Yoghurt / clotted / cultured milk’ (from
14.4% to 0.1%); ‘Fresh milk, long life milk etc.’ (from 15.9% to 2.5%) and Preserved milk (from 15.6% to 4.8%).