The Year-On-Year inflation rate, which stood at 11.8% in January, declined to 8.3% in April 2023 from 11.0% in April 2022. This is according to the latest bulletin from Statistics Mauritius. Headline inflation for the twelve months ending April 2023 was 10.9% last month, compared with 11.1% in March, and 7.0% for the twelve months ending April 2022. Between 11% in March and 10.9% in April, that’s a very small drop, and doesn’t represent any real change in business conditions.
On the other hand, the consumer price index is also down for the fourth month of the year. It fell from 131.1 points in March 2023 to 131 in April 2023. This represents a decrease of 0.1 points, or 0.1%.
This decrease is mainly attributed to a drop in the price index for vegetables, food, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.
A high inflation rate impoverishes the population, if the loss of purchasing power is not compensated by an increase in wages/income and social benefits. The worst part is that it is the poorest households that suffer from this high inflation.
