By Sallieu S. Kanu
Key findings of the December 2024 Consumer Price Index (CPI) show that annual national inflation (year-on-year) is 13.78 percent; down by 1.63 percentage points from 15.41 percent in November, according to the Statistics Sierra Leone consumer price index.
The data shows that the Monthly Consumer Price Inflation for December 2024 is 0.85 percent; up by 0.57 percent from 0.28 percent in November 2024.
KEY DOWNWARD MOVERS:
The Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, with a weight 8.90 percent declined by 14.04 percentage points from 26.41 percent in November 2024 to 12.37 percent in December 2024, year on Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance, with the weight of 5.60 percent, declined by 6.55 percentage points from 18.13 percent in November 2024 to 11.58 percent in December 2024, year-on-year.
Clothing and footwear, with a weight of 7.70 percent, declined by 2.27 percentage from 16.11 percent in November 2024 to Four regions went downwards: Eastern region moved from 16.52 percent in November 2024 to 14.70 percent in December 2024; the Northern region from 17.37 percent in November 2024 to 13.98 percent in December 2024; Southern region from 17.66 percent in November 2024 to 14.62 percent in December 2024 and Western region from 14.82 percent in November 2024 to 13.61 percent in December 2024.
One Region went upwards: North-west region from 12.19 in November 2024 to 12.31 percent in December 2024.
Statistics Sierra Leone observed that the headline year-on-year inflation rate dropped throughout 2024, even though it remains to be very high. It noted drops in the inflation rates for seven divisions and for four regions in the month of December 2024, adding that the food inflation impact, also, has softened by over four times over the last 12 months. Finally, we observed that the national estimate is above the Western and North-west regions’ estimates, but below the other regions’ estimates.
The national Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the measure of the average price level of selected goods and services in the country.
The inflation rate is the percentage change between the CPIs of any two periods, which could be monthly, 3-monthly or 12-monthly
also known as year-on-year (YOY). The YOY rate is mostly considered for economic decision making and macroeconomic analyses because it compares the current situation with one year back. Inflation rate is important because it affects the consumption pattern of consumers, production cost of producers and policies of government and development partners.
In Sierra Leone, the indexes have been rebased recently to December 2021 and prices are now collected for 440 items at the prevailing retail market prices from six (6) markets in Freetown and three (3) markets each in Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Kono and Port Loko and Kambia for weekly prices. Prices are also collected from other outlets for monthly items whose prices are less likely to fluctuate weekly.