Luanda – Luanda - The increase in the prices of goods and services in the country may slow down and reach an estimated inflation rate of 23.4% from the second half of this year, the governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Manuel Tiago Dias, said on Friday in Luanda.
The manager of the Central Bank, who was speaking at a press conference as part of the 117th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), held on the 16th and 17th of this month, in the Angolan capital, clarified that, in that period, prices may record a slower pace, compared to 2023, which recorded inflation of around 28 percent.
For this to happen, the governor pointed out the need for the Central Bank to continue to control the circulation of the national currency in the economy, as well as to hope that the Government's measures related, particularly, to the increase in the supply of essential goods can have the expected effects and contribute to the deceleration of inflation in the country.
Citing data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Manuel Tiago Dias recalled that monthly inflation, last April, was set at 2.61%, with food and non-alcoholic beverages contributing with 72%.
He pointed out that 24 of the 732 products that make up the matrix of the National Consumer Price Index (IPCN) contributed with 1.49 percentage points to total inflation, which corresponds to 57.19%, with emphasis on tomatoes (0.19 percentage points), bread (0.15), chicken thighs (0.12), medium-grain rice (0.11) and fresh frozen horse mackerel fish (0.10).
He recalled that the growth in food prices is fundamentally the result of the insufficient supply of widely consumed products in the economy, taking into account the reduction in imports, which 'have not been compensated, in the same magnitude, with the increase in national production'.
INE data show that the year-on-year inflation rate (April 2023) reached 28.20%, with food and non-alcoholic beverages contributing with 68.12%.
This year, the BNA's forecast points to inflation of 23.4%, a percentage mainly influenced by the rise in the prices of diesel and urban public passenger transport, as well as by inflationary inertia, according to the governor of the Central Bank.
Global inflation falls to 5.9%
On the international scene, Manuel Tiago Dias recalled that the projections released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last April foresee, for 2024, a reduction in the world inflation rate from 6.8%, in 2023, to 5.9 percent.
Despite this expected reduction, he said that central banks are cautious about reversing the course of monetary policy, due to the resilience shown by some economies and geopolitical factors.
In the energy commodities market, he said that the average price of oil rose in March and April, due to expectations of lower supply, resulting from the worsening of geopolitical conflicts.
In addition, the IMF also estimates the continued growth of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 3.2%, the same percentage observed in 2023. QCB/DOJ
