The impact of measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 has caused a rise in consumer prices to 1.1 percent in April 2020 against 0.1 percent in March 2020, APA learns Tuesday at the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD).
“This evolution results mainly from an increase in the prices of transport services (+2.3 percent) and food products and non-alcoholic beverages (+1.8 percent), due to the impact of measures to combat the spread of Covid-19,” the ANSD explained.
To fight against the spread of the coronavirus, the government had to ban inter-city transport and reduce the number of passengers carried on public transport. To get out of this situation, some crooked drivers have either cut the journey or illegally increased fares. This increased the cost of transport. In the area of food products, too, the ban on intercity transport has led to higher prices.
In terms of annual variation, the ANSD reports that consumer prices rose by 3.3 percent.
As for core inflation, it increased by 0.4 percent in monthly rate and by 1.9 percent in annual variation.
The prices of local products increased by 1.7 percent while those of imported products decreased by 0.3 percent in April 2020 compared with the previous month. In the annual variation, they increased by 3.5 and 2.3 percent respectively.
MS/te/lb/abj/APA