Good maize harvests continue to help drive down inflation in Malawi, with the headline number easing to 7.7 percent year-on-year in June from 7.9 percent in May, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Thursday.
It said food inflation, which accounts for 58.1 percent of the impoverished southern African country's Consumer Price Index (CPI), dipped to 6.8 percent.
Inflation fell to single digits for the first time in four years in January and has continued to ease during the course of 2007.
Malawi is enjoying a bumper maize harvest for the second consecutive year, partly attributed to a government policy to reintroduce input subsidies scrapped in 1996.
According to official data, the country has a surplus of 1.3 million metric tonnes of maize this season, up from 400,000 metric tonnes in the 2005/06 season.
The surplus in the staple grain has prompted government to start selling the food grain to some famine struck neighbours in the southern African region, particularly Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
On Tuesday, the U.N Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) cited Zimbabwe and Swaziland amongst 28 poor countries worst hit by food shortages this year.
Thursday 19 July 2007
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