By Alusine Sesay
The prices of a kilogram of imported and local rice increased by 15 percent and 13 percent, respectively, when compared to the previous quarter (January-March 2024) and increased by 30 percent and 22 percent, respectively, year on year, according to a new report by the World Food Programme, WFP.
The ‘RAM Sierra Leone Market Prices Bulletin / Quarter 2, 2024’, which was published on August 13, 2024, shows that ‘’the purchasing power of the average Sierra Leonean continued to depreciate due to increase in prices of key staples and stagnation in minimum wage rates/daily wage labour. ‘’As of June 2024, a monthly minimum labour wage purchased around 34 kg of imported rice compared to 44 kg during the same period in 2023.’
The report, however, shows that Food inflation has improved and came down from 49.82 percent in January to 27.0 percent in June 2024.
The Leones has been relatively stable since the last quarter of 2023 (October-December 2023) to date. Comparing the year-on-year depreciation of the Leones against the United States Dollar it stands at 8 percent in June 2024, according to the report.
The national headline inflation has reduced from 47.42 percent in January 2024 to 31.93 percent in June 2024, according to the report.