Inflation: Cameroon Records Progressive Drop

 A recent report published by the National Institute of Statistics shows that inflation rate in the country stood at 0.6 per cent in 2017, contrary to 2.7 per cent in 2015.

Inflation in the country has been reducing steadily in the last three years, a recent report by Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics (NIS) has shown. By implication, the prices of basic commodities have largely been dropping over the period under review.

Going by the NIS report, the country recorded an average annual inflation rate of 0.6 per cent in 2017, contrary to 0.9 per cent in 2016 and 2.7 per cent in 2015.

However, the report which details the evolution of inflation in the country indicates that the prices of goods actually increased across all towns in the year 2017, going by spatial distribution. Bertoua experienced an increase in prices by 2.6 per cent, the highest in the country, followed by Bafoussam and Maroua (1 per cent), Ebolowa (0.9 per cent) and Garoua and Yaounde (0.8 per cent).

The other regional capitals recorded inflation rates which fell below the national annual average, with Ngaoudere registering 0.4 per cent, Buea, 0.3 per cent, Bamenda and Douala, 0.2 per cent.

It is posited in the report that the general price increase observed in 2017 was thanks to the rise in the cost of diverse goods and services, the increase in the cost of alcoholic and tobacco products and the increase in housing cost, water, gas, electricity and fuels. Cost of catering and hotel services, education as well as dressing and shoes also jumped up.

The new tax instituted for catering and hotel structures in the 2017 financed law provoked the increase in cost of the services, while the rise of communal tax from FCFA 200 in 2016 to FCFA 600 in 2017 also had a considerable impact on the prices of certain goods and ser...