Africa Inflation Monitor — Monthly CPI Data

Delivers monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) and inflation rates for 7 African countries — directly from national statistics offices and central banks. Data is typically available 2–4 weeks after the reference period, compared to 6–12 months for World Bank / IMF aggregator feeds.

Countries: Ghana · Morocco · Tunisia · South Africa · Zambia · Kenya · Uganda

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Why this actor

Aggregator	Africa CPI lag	This actor
World Bank	6–12 months	2–4 weeks
IMF	6–12 months	2–4 weeks

Each record includes CPI index level, year-on-year % change, month-on-month % change, and food/non-food sub-categories where available — normalised across all 7 countries.

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Coverage

Country	Source	Legal	CPI index	YoY	MoM	Food	Historical depth
Ghana (GH)	GSS StatsBank PX-Web API	🟡 no ban	✅	✅ pub	✅ pub	✅ index	Jan 1998
Morocco (MA)	HCP BDS API — CC-BY 4.0	🟢 CC-BY	✅	derived	derived	✅ index	Jan 2017
Tunisia (TN)	INS HTML tables	🟢 open	✅	✅ pub	✅ pub	✅ index	Rolling 9 mo
South Africa (ZA)	SARB JSON API	🟡 © footer	—	✅ pub	—	—	Jan 2000
Zambia (ZM)	BoZ JSON API	🟡 no ban	—	✅ pub	✅ pub	✅ yoy	Feb 2010
Kenya (KE)	CBK wpDataTables	🟡 © footer	—	✅ pub	—	— + annualAvg	Jan 2005
Uganda (UG)	UBOS Excel via WP	🟡 © footer	✅	derived	derived	✅ index	Jul 2017

Note: Food sub-category is not available for South Africa or Kenya from any machine-readable source without browser automation. South Africa also lacks a CPI index level via the SARB API (headline YoY only).

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Modes

latest (default)

Returns the single most recently published CPI month for each country. One API call per country, results in ~7 records. Recommended for scheduled daily or weekly runs.

historical

Returns monthly CPI rows for a specified date range. Requires dateFrom and dateTo in YYYY-MM format.

Limitations in historical mode:

• Tunisia: only the rolling 9-month window is available — no archive API.
• Uganda: each month requires downloading a separate Excel file (~650 KB each). For Uganda, latest mode is strongly recommended; historical across many months is slow.

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Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	latest	latest or historical
countries	string[]	all 7	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes: GH, MA, TN, ZA, ZM, KE, UG
dateFrom	string	—	Required for historical. YYYY-MM
dateTo	string	—	Required for historical. YYYY-MM
maxItems	integer	5000	Hard cap on total output records

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Output example

Ghana — latest:

{
  "schemaVersion": "0.1",
  "id": "GH:2026-01",
  "country": "GH",
  "countryName": "Ghana",
  "period": "2026-01",
  "currency": "GHS",
  "cpiIndex": 262.3,
  "cpiBaseYear": "2018",
  "yoyChange": 3.8,
  "yoyChangeDerived": false,
  "momChange": 0.2,
  "momChangeDerived": false,
  "food": 294.3,
  "foodType": "index",
  "nonFood": 239.1,
  "nonFoodType": "index",
  "annualAverage": null,
  "source": {
    "name": "Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) StatsBank",
    "url": "https://statsbank.statsghana.gov.gh/api/v1/en/Macroeconomic Indicators/Prices and Inflation/cpi.px",
    "retrievedAt": "2026-06-04T14:05:06.862Z",
    "asOfDate": "2026-01",
    "licenseNote": "Source: Ghana Statistical Service (statsghana.gov.gh). Government statistical data, reproduced for informational purposes."
  },
  "warnings": []
}

Kenya — latest (headline-only source):

{
  "id": "KE:2026-05",
  "country": "KE",
  "period": "2026-05",
  "currency": "KES",
  "cpiIndex": null,
  "yoyChange": 6.68,
  "momChange": null,
  "food": null,
  "annualAverage": 4.66,
  "source": { "name": "Central Bank of Kenya (CBK)", ... }
}

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Cost (Pay-per-event)

Run type	Cost
latest — all 7 countries	$0.10
latest — 2 countries	$0.10 (same snapshot charge)
Historical — 1 country, 12 months	$0.12
Historical — Ghana full (1998–2026, ~337 months)	$3.37
Historical — all 7, full depth	~$13

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Legality & disclaimers

All data reproduced from official government sources. Each output record carries a source.licenseNote with the legal basis:

• Morocco (HCP): CC-BY 4.0 — explicit open licence
• Tunisia (INS): Explicit open data declaration
• Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa: No redistribution prohibition found on any government web page as of 2026-06-04 (verified via direct inspection). Published under the factual-data rationale: raw statistical figures are not copyrightable; only creative expression is protected.

This data is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice.

All values are reproduced faithfully from the source — no values are synthesised or adjusted.

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Limitations

• South Africa: cpiIndex = null, food = null — SARB API only publishes headline YoY %. Stats SA (the primary source) is blocked by a WAF.
• Kenya: cpiIndex = null, food = null, momChange = null — CBK only publishes YoY and 12-month annual average.
• Tunisia: Rolling 9-month window only — no historical archive available via any machine-readable route.
• Uganda: historical mode downloads one Excel file (~650 KB) per month. For ranges > 3 months, consider using latest mode on a schedule instead.
• Morocco: yoyChangeDerived: true — YoY and MoM are computed from the index, not published directly by HCP.
• Data cadence: CPI is published monthly, typically 2–4 weeks after the reference period. Scheduling this actor daily is fine but new data will only appear once per month.

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Issues / feedback

Open an issue or contact simon.maltzen@mail.de