From 2006 to 2016, Africa’s annual inflation rate has more than doubled, reaching 12.4%, according to recent data on socio-economic indicators released by the African Development Bank (AfDB). 

Worldwide, Africa has been the number one in this regard over the period. In 2016, the region’s average exceeded by far that of the whole planet (3.5%), India’s (4.8%), Latin America and Caribbean’s’ (4.2%), Asia’s emerging economies’ (3.3%), U.S’ (2.7%), and the Euro zone’ (1.7%). 

Over the 54 countries studied, only seven have recorded a decrease in their consumer prices in 2016, while in 17 other countries, the inflation rate ranged between 0% and 5%. Countries where inflation stood between 5% and 10% are 18 in all. Those with an inflation rate of more than 10% were 11, that year. 

The top 10 of countries with the worst results in regards to inflation, are South Sudan (444.1%), Angola (30.4%), Libya (25.8%), Malawi (21.8%), Mozambique (19.8%), Zambia (18.2%), Ghana (17.5%), Nigeria (15.8%), Sierra Leone (11.1%), Egypt (10.2% but soared to more than 34% in 2017). Globally, these countries have experienced or just exited different sorts of crises (social, economic, financial, monetary, etc).  

In the meantime, the CEMAC and WAEMU integration zones have recorded the best performances in terms of inflation which was quite low, under the reference range. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo