Inflation drops as food prices fall

Rwanda’s year-on-year inflation has dropped to 5.57 per cent last month from 5.92 per cent the previous month, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) said Tuesday.The change gives a general inflation rate by an annual average of 7.3 percent during the month of July 2012. The central bank projects inflation rate to be at 7.5 per cent in December this year.According to NISR, the fall is attributed to the drop in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages of and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels.“The underlying inflation rate, excluding fresh food and energy, decreased by 0.22 per cent compared to the previous month and increased by 2.95 per cent on annual change. The annual average underlying inflation rate is 6.4 per cent in July 2012, down from the previous month 6.8 per cent,” the statistics body said in a report. NISR also noted that the increase of 0.28 per cent in prices of food and non alcoholic beveragesprimarily attribute to the increase of 1.48 per cent of vegetables.“In annual change, the increase in the general index of 5.57 per cent is mainly due to the rising prices of food and non alcoholic beverages of 10.38 per cent and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels of 6.31 percent which contributed additional 3.76 percent and 1.31 percent respectively,” the report states.The ‘local goods’ increased by 6.32 per cent on annual change with a monthly change of 0.07 per cent, while prices of the imported products increased by 2.61 per cent on annual change with a monthly change of 0.08 per cent.

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Inflation drops as food prices fall