Southerners pay more for rooibos, maize meal

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) bulletin for January indicates that consumers residing in the southern regions of Namibia as well as the Erongo and Omaheke regions paid more for 100 grams of rooibos tea and maize meal, relative to the rest of the country.

The bulletin also found that consumers in the Khomas region paid on average lower prices compared to consumers found in other parts of the country.

The Namibia Statistics Agency has grouped the Khomas region as zone 1, the Kavango East and West regions, Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshana, Otjozondjupa, Kunene and the Zambezi regions as zone 2 and the Erongo, Omaheke, Hardap and the //Kharas regions as zone 3.

“The analysis of the average retail prices for selected products in January 2025 revealed that consumers in zone 3 paid the highest price for a 5kg bag of Maize meal at N$71.57, followed by zone 2 at N$70.49, while the lowest price of N$68.99 was paid by consumers in Zone 1,” the NSA said.

“Meanwhile, consumers in zone 3 paid the highest price for a 100 grams of Rooibos teabags at N$35.66; followed by zone 1 at N$33.23, with zone 2 consumers paying the lowest price of N$32.49,” it added.

On a year-to-year basis, the inflation rate for January marked a decline compared to the quoted figure for 2024.

“The headline annual inflation rate for January 2025, stood at 3.2% compared to 5.4% registered in January 2024. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate was 1.1%, higher than the 0.2% registered during the preceding month,” the NSA said.

On a regional basis, inflation in zone 2 was the highest, followed by zone 3 while zone 1 registered the lowest.

“The Zonal year-on-year inflation rates for the month of January 2025 revealed that zone 2 recorded the highest rate of 3.5%, followed by zone 1 which recorded an annual inflation rate of 3.3% and zone 3 recorded 2.6%

In comparison to the headline inflation rate of 3.2%, the core inflation rate stood at 3.7%.