Highlights
• The Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket continued to rise across all the regions in the country.
• The SMEB rose by 4.4 percent in the urban cities; by 0.8 percent in the rural Northern Region; by 3.5 percent in the rural Central Region; and by 2.6 percent in the rural Southern Region. Generally, increases in the prices of maize grain, beans, cassava, and vegetables contributed a significant share of the rise in the SMEBs across all the regions.
• The price of maize grain surged to MK 326 per kg by end July from MK 307 per kg during mid-July 2022 owing to continued hoarding of the grain by producers and traders.
• Beans were trading at MK 1,360 per kg, an increase of 2.2 percent since the last round.
• The prices of both cowpeas and pigeon peas decreased to MK 788 per kg and MK 588 per kg, respectively. The price of cowpeas decreased by 2.7 percent while that of pigeon peas fell by 5.8 percent since the last round due to new harvests.
Source: World Food Programme