S. Sudan: Monthly inflation, consumer price index decline
By Julius N. Uma
February 6, 2012 (NIMULE) – The Republic of South Sudan, last month, recorded a 3.5% reduction in its Consumer Price Index (CPI), while annual inflation fell from 47.8% in January to just 42.2% in February, the country’s national bureau of statistics has announced.
The unexpected decrease, South Sudan National Bureau of Statistic (SSNBS) said, was mainly driven by lower prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
CPI is an index which tracks the price of a representative basket of goods and services consumed by households in South Sudan with the composition of the goods and services in the basket reflecting average household consumption in the country.
However, while the change in the CPI over time indicates how much more expensive it is for the average household to continue consuming the same basket of goods and services; the percentage change in the CPI is what determines the consumer price inflation.
In its 2 March reportthe statistical body noted that from January to February, the CPI decreased by 0.6% in Juba, the South Sudanese capital, while that in Wau [Western Bahr el Ghazal state] and Malakal [Upper Nile state] declined by 9.3% and 3.1% respectively.
“The CPI decreased by 3.5% from January 2012 to February 2012. Food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased in price by 2.2% from January 2012 to February 2012. Health decreased by 9.1% and furnishing and household equipment decreased in price by 17.1% from January 2012 to February 2012,” partly reads the March 2 report.
David Chan Thiang, the organization’s director of economic statistics, told Sudan Tribune that the decrease in consumer goods was in part due to interior ministry’s increased scrutiny of international, state and county checkpoints.
“The illegal checkpoints that were being used by some individuals to collect taxes from traders and business men were a great disservice to this nation. You can now see remarkable changes from the time they were regulated,” said Thiang.
He also lauded the recent improvements in the country’s infrastructure, specifically citing the 192-km Juba-Nimule road linking South Sudan to neighbouring Uganda as one of the major steps towards boosting the economy of the world’s newest nation.
The SSNBS report also noted an increase in prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which reportedly increased by 146.3%, and restaurant and hotel services earmarked to have increased by 34.5% between February 2011 and February 2012.
(ST)