Namibia’s inflation accelerated in September on the same fuel channel driving prints across the region. The Namibia Statistics Agency put annual inflation at 5.4 percent, up from 5.0 percent in August, with transport the largest contributor at 2.2 percentage points of the headline rate. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributed 1.0 points and food and non-alcoholic beverages 0.8 points.
Transport prices rose 14.9 percent year on year, the fastest of any category, after the September fuel adjustment lifted petrol by 60 cents a litre and diesel by 1.60 Namibian dollars a litre, which the energy ministry attributed to higher international fuel and import costs. Petrol and diesel prices are up 30.4 percent year on year, personal transport equipment inflation reached 20.1 percent, and public transport fares followed: air transport up 22.1 percent, rail up 15.7 percent, taxi fares up 15.4 percent and bus fares up 12.6 percent.
Housing, at 28.4 percent of the consumer basket, rose 4.2 percent year on year, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier, on rents, maintenance and electricity and fuel costs. Food inflation was more forgiving than the headline suggests: meat slowed to 3.3 percent from 8.1 percent in September 2025, oils and fats to 3.2 percent from 6.0 percent, and coffee, tea and cocoa to 3.5 percent from 5.9 percent. Communications was the only category in deflation, down 0.9 percent. Regionally, the Khomas zone recorded 6.2 percent inflation, the southern and coastal zone 5.8 percent and the northern zone 4.3 percent.
For the Bank of Namibia, this is imported inflation in its purest form: a fuel adjustment set by world prices, transmitted through fares and freight into food distribution costs, in an economy whose currency is pegged to the South African rand. Rate policy can lean against the second round effects in housing and services, but the September print itself will only reverse when the fuel base effect does.