Annual rate of inflation slowed to 2.43 per cent last month, down from 3.65 per cent recorded in December, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in its latest consumer price index report. The all urban general index was established at 121.4 points which stands for an increase of 0.18 per cent over the previous month which was 121.2 points, the statistics body said. The report indicates that the increase in the consumer price index of 0.18 per cent was primarily attributed to the increase in health and education services which increased by 10.09 and 7.07 percentage points respectively. Whereas in annual change, the increase in the general index of 2.43 per cent was mainly due to the rising prices of food and non alcoholic beverages which went up by 2.44 percentage points, education and restaurants and hotels which went up by 8.87 percentage points. ‘Local goods’ prices increased by 2.38 percentage points on annual change with a monthly change of 0.09 percentage points, while prices of imported products increased by 2.62 percentage points on annual change with a monthly change of 0.58 percentage points. Prices of fresh products had a positive annual change of 1.56 percentage points between last month and January last year. The report indicated that the underlying inflation rate, excluding fresh food and energy increased by 0.85 per cent compared to December and increased by 2.71 per cent on annual change. The annual average underlying inflation rate was 3.8 per cent in January 2014 down from four per cent in December.
