Ethiopia: Food Inflation Stands High in Ethiopia despite Policy Measures to Stabilize Prices

Ethiopia’s inflation rate remains persistently high, reaching 33.6 percent in February 2022. The headline inflation in February 2022 is lower than the 34.5 percent recorded in January 2022. Food inflation stood at 41.9 percent in February, up from 39.9 percent the previous month. Non-food inflation declined to 22.9 percent from 27.3 percent registered in January 2022. The major factors driving food inflation are spikes in price of cooking oils and fats, non-alcoholic beverages, bread and cereals, fish and sea foods, dairy, and meat products. Weak domestic market supply due to agricultural production constraints and steady devaluation of the local currency are among the major factors contributing to the staggeringly high inflation levels. Although the Ethiopian government took various policy actions including monetary, fiscal, and structural measures to control price escalations, the inflation levels remain in the double digits.