INFLATION continued to fall in the year to June due to slower rises in the prices of food and energy, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.
The year-on-year rate of inflation fell to 7.6 per cent from 8.3 per cent in May, the lowest level in two years.
NBS report released yesterday says: “The decrease of inflation rate explains that, the speed of price increase for commodities in June has decreased compared to the speed recorded in May.”
The rate shows that the authorities in the country are ahead of International Monetary Fund (IMF) projection of lowering inflation to 7.0 per cent by the end of December 2013.
Given the speed of declining, the IMF projection goal may be reached before the third quarter (September) ends, even to reach the projected policy goal of 5.0 per cent before the year end.
Mzumbe University Dar es Salaam Business School Senior Lecturer (economics), Dr Honest Ngowi, said the decline was the continuation of the downward trend experienced for several months now.
“The rate and trend are good. And we may soon reach our policy goal of 5.0 per cent in the very near future,” Dr Ngowi said, adding “it reflects a good effort made by central bank for controlling money supply (in the economy).”
The senior economics lecturer said the worries are on taxes adopted for this fiscal year because some are inflationary in nature and might derail the achievements. “We cannot reach the 5.0 per cent goal unconditionally.
The way forward is to safeguard the achievements by addressing structural issues that erode the desires to achieve the policy rate,” Dr Ngowi said.
The initiatives, to address structural issues, like President Barack Obama’s Power Africa are commendable as would lower the cost of electricity and ultimately production