Economic news: Inflation rate up in August 2023 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
During the first week of August 2023, the inflation rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo saw a slight increase. According to the Central Bank of Congo (BCC), the inflation rate stood at 0.164%, against 0.150% the previous week. This increase brought the cumulative inflation rate since the beginning of the year to 16.661%.
The goods and services market was characterized by a moderate increase in the pace of progress of the consumer price index (CPI), compared to the previous week. This development was mainly influenced by consumption functions such as food and non-alcoholic beverages, miscellaneous goods and services, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, and transport.
Among these functions, food and non-alcoholic beverages made the largest contribution to the overall index, at 68.0%. Price increases in these different categories contributed to the overall increase in inflation. Only the transport item experienced a deceleration in its index variation.
The inflation observed is mainly due to the variation in the prices of certain food products, in particular those of the sub-function “Vegetables other than potatoes and other tubers”, due to the drop in supply due to the dry season. .
Compared to the same period of the previous year, the year-on-year inflation rate stands at 23.253%.
Inflation is an economic phenomenon that leads to a decrease in the purchasing power of money, resulting in a general and lasting increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy.
This rise in the inflation rate in the Democratic Republic of Congo underlines the importance for the economic authorities to put in place measures to control this situation in order to preserve the purchasing power of citizens and promote the country’s economic stability