KIGALI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Rwanda’s year-on-year inflation rate slowed to 4.54 percent in January from 5.74 percent in the previous month, the statistics office said on Thursday.

Consumer prices eased 0.71 percent in January from the previous month, driven by a decrease in the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The underlying year-on-year inflation rate -- which excludes fresh food and energy prices -- fell to 3.17 percent from 3.46 percent in December, although the underlying index rose 0.25 percent in January from a month earlier.

Earlier this month the central bank governor told Reuters the central African country’s inflation rate would remain in single digits in 2010 on the back of strong agricultural output.

Inflation surged in Rwanda in 2008 on the back of higher food and fuel prices -- as was the case in the region’s other, bigger economies.

Like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, inflation rates in Rwanda have been slowing gradually over the past year and expectations of better harvests have improved the inflationary outlook even though economic growth is now picking up.

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