Food basket raises cost of living
The cost of living in Malawi’s four cities—Lilongwe, Zomba, Blantyre and Mzuzu—shot by an average 3.4 percent to K109 183 in November largely propelled by a rise in food prices, indicates a report.
The November 2013 Centre for Social Concern(CfSC) Basic Needs Basket (BNB) report shows that in the period under review, the food basket which includes maize, milling, usipa and cooking oil shot by about six percent to an average K62 417 for a household of six members.
Notable in the four cities, maize prices jumped by an average six percent.
According to the report, a household in Lilongwe required to spend K119 493, Zomba K104 089, Blantyre K115 910 and Mzuzu K97 239 to meet basic needs.
In an e-mail on Tuesday, CfSC social conditions research programme officer Alex Nkosi said the future looks grim, especially for the poor due to the rising food prices and the aid freeze.
“The cost of living, spurred by unrelenting price spikes of food items, continues to gallop at a time when Malawi economy is very vulnerable. The trend of the cost of living does not send a good signal. If we are to extrapolate from previous experiences when donors also froze aid to Malawi, then the future looks grim for consumers and more especially the poor. It means that most Malawians will continue to struggle to meet their basic necessities,” said Nkosi.
The BNB—a monthly review of the cost of living through surveys—however indicates that the non-food basket dropped marginally by about 0.2 percent to K43 112.
The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) November report noted that overall the national average maize prices have risen minimally within the last month but are in the range of earlier price projections for the October-December period which was pegged at 20 percent.
The network attributed the slow rise in the prices to increase availability of subsidised maize in Admarc depots and possibly due to ongoing humanitarian assistance distributions which started in October.
The report also noted that the Malawi Vulnerable Assessment Committee (Mvac) increased the number of people that require food security assistance has been increased from approximately 1.5 million to 1.8 million.
The October inflation rate rose by 0.5 percentage point to 22.2 percent according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) against a backdrop of rising food and fuel prices.
NSO data also indicates that the urban inflation rose by 0.6 percentage points to 31.6 percent.
