Kinshasa, October 11th, 2026 (CPA). –The inflation rate on the goods and services market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) stood at 0.13% during the period from October 2ndto 9th, 2026, compared with 0.15% the previous week, according to the economic situation report of the Central Bank of the Congo (BCC), consulted by CPA on Sunday.
“During the first week of October 2026, weekly inflation stood at 0.13%, compared with 0.15% the previous week. The average over the last four weeks (0.14%) corresponds to an annualized rate of approximately 7.5%, below the level observed between June and August, when the weekly average was around 0.19%,” the report stated. According to the document, cumulative inflation since the beginning of the year reached 7.4%, compared with 5.9% over the corresponding period in 2025, while the annualized rate stood at 9.9%. The source attributed this acceleration to external and domestic factors. Externally, these include rising food prices, particularly cereal prices, as well as disruptions to global supply chains. Domestically, temporary price pressures in several cities across the country, resulting from the war in the eastern part of the DRC and the impact of the Ebola virus disease outbreak, have contributed to this trend. Food products continue to dominate price formation. The “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” category accounted for 80.4% of the weekly change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), compared with 54.0% the previous week, contributing approximately 0.11 percentage points. Given its weight in the index (70.0%), this category largely determines the overall inflation trend.“Supply and transportation constraints affecting food products in certain provinces, linked to the deterioration of agricultural feeder roads and disruptions to rail traffic, as well as rising prices of imported cereals, continue to fuel these pressures,” the document stated.
According to the BCC, “Miscellaneous goods and services” (8.8%) and “Transport” (7.2%) ranked as the second- and third-largest contributors, respectively. The increased contribution of transport is explained by the sensitivity of costs to transportation difficulties and local disruptions in fuel supplies. Conversely, the “Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” category, which accounted for 25.0% of the weekly change the previous week, made no contribution, reflecting the temporary nature of the fuel price pressures observed at the end of September. “Year-on-year inflation stood at 3.7%, compared with 7.6% a year earlier. This moderate level largely reflects the exceptional decline in prices recorded in October 2025 following the appreciation of the Congolese franc,” the report specified. Year-on-year inflation in the price index compares the price level in a given week with that of the same week in the previous year. It therefore depends both on recent price movements and on changes recorded a year earlier.