Rwanda's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, increased by 0.9 percent on annual basis and 0.8 percent on a monthly basis, a new report by the National Institute of statistics Rwanda (NISR) has indicated.

The underlying inflation rate (excluding fresh food and energy) increased by 0.2 percent when compared to March 2015 and increased by 1.6 percent when compared to April 2014.

This therefore means that the country’s annual average underlying inflation rate is currently established at 2.3 percent.

According to the report released over the weekend, annual average rate between April 2015 and April 2014 is 1.1 percent.

The increase was mainly due to the rising prices of ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ which increased by 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent for   housing, water, electricity and gas respectively.

On an annual basis, the index for local goods increased by 1.5 percent while for imported goods, it decreased by 0.3 percent, Lucie Mutetijabiro, NISR’s Price Statistics Research Statistician Team Leader, said.

Meanwhile, CPI for fresh products decreased by 0.1 percent and energy by 3.1 percent

On a monthly basis, the local goods index increased by 1.0 percent while for fresh products by 4.0 percent with energy decreasing by 0.7 percent.

The biggest negative contributor according to the report came from ‘Transport’ which registered only 0.7 percentage points.