Top 10 African countries with the highest cost of goods and services in 2025
When the Consumer Price Index (CPI) sees a significant shift, notably an increase, it causes ripples throughout a country's economy. For African countries, much like everywhere else, this inevitably affects the cost of goods and services.
Business Insider Africa presents the top 10 African countries with the highest cost of goods and services in 2025.
This list is courtesy of a report by the World Bank.
South Sudan ranks number 1 on the list.
A large increase in the CPI indicates that the cost of living is rising rapidly, a situation that has immediate and long-term implications for individuals, businesses, and governments.
The most immediate result of a significant CPI shift is a loss of consumer buying power. As prices grow faster than wages, families may buy fewer products and services.
This compression is especially difficult for low- and middle-income earners, who spend a bigger portion of their income on necessities such as food, shelter, and transportation.
Because they spend a greater portion of their income on necessities like housing, food, and transportation, low- and middle-income workers are most affected by this strain.
A greater cost of living is usually the result of price increases that are reflected in a higher CPI. Families are often forced to reduce discretionary spending or draw from savings as the cost of rent, food, utilities, healthcare, and transportation rises.
In reaction to rising prices, workers frequently seek higher salaries to maintain their living standards.
If employers approve these raises and pass the higher labor costs on to customers through higher prices, it can set off a wage-price cycle, maintaining and exacerbating inflation over time.
Volatile or quickly rising CPI increases create uncertainty for businesses. Cost prediction and price setting become more complex, and as a result, businesses may delay investment choices or pass on inflationary pressures to customers.
High inflation can also erode corporate confidence and stifle economic progress.
Furthermore, inflation erodes the real worth of savings. If interest rates on savings accounts do not keep up with inflation, depositors will lose money in real terms.
This is especially true for pensioners and those on fixed incomes, whose buying power slowly falls during times of high inflation.
With that said, here are the African countries with the highest consumer price index change in 2025, as seen in the Africa Pulse Report by the World Bank.
Top 10 African countries with the highest cost of goods and services in 2025
Rank Country Consumer Price Index 2025
1. South Sudan 179.8%
2. Sudan 89.4%
3. Zimbabwe 84.9%
4. Burundi 39.1%
5. Malawi 34.7%
6. Angola 25.0%
7. Nigeria 22.1%
8. Ethiopia 20.7%
9. Ghana 17.2%
10. Zambia 14.2%
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