The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, surged to 20.52 percent in August 2022, up from 19.64 percent in the July.
The rate is the highest since October 2005.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said this in its consumer price index (CPI) report for August 2022, released on Thursday.
According to NBS, the rate was 3.52 percent higher than the 17.01 percent recorded in August 2021.
According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
The report reads, “On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2022 was 1.77 percent, this was 0.05 percent lower than the rate recorded in July 2022 (1.82 percent). This means that in August 2022 the headline inflation rate (month–on–month basis) declined by 0.05 percent.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending August 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 17.07 percent, showing a 0.47 percent increase compared to 16.60 percent recorded in August 2021.”