Standard Bank’s Economic Studies department said yesterday that inflation in Mozambique is expected to have reached 5.3 percent in July, confirming the steady rise in prices, which should end the year below 10 percent.
“The inflation rate in Mozambique in July probably indicated that the upward trend is sustained and we expect it to have reached 5.3 percent in July, up from 4.4 percent in June, after the lowest value of 2.3 percent in April,” the Standard Bank analysts write.
In a note sent to investors on Tuesday morning and to which Lusa had access, Standard Bank’s economic department also writes that “in the second half of the year there is potential for the increases in electricity tariffs and fuel prices to push up prices”.
However, “inflation should be below 10 percent by the end of the year”, they conclude,
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast economic growth of 3.5 to 4 percent in Mozambique this year, accelerating to 4 to 4.5 percent next year, after growing by 3.9 percent in 2017.
According to IMF forecasts, inflation will fall below 6.5 percent this year and then fall to 5.5 percent in 2019. Net international reserves will remain at comfortable levels in 2018 and 2019, the Fund’s head of mission in Mozambique, Ricardo Velloso, said.
The performance of the Mozambican economy this year and next will be “supported by further declines in interest rates, given the benign inflation outlook”, Velloso concluded in an economic analysis made at the end of last week.
Source: Lusa
