Rwanda's inflation down to 2.46% in February

Rwanda’s year-on-year inflation rate slowed by more than two percentage points in February to stand at 2.46 percent as food prices declined further, official data showed.

The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) said late on Friday the consumer price index fell 0.45 percent in February from a month earlier, mainly due to a 1.65 percent drop in the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks.

The cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks fell 0.71 percent in January. The central bank governor told Reuters in February the central African country’s inflation rate would remain in single digits in 2010 thanks to strong agricultural production.

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.

The cost of vegetables fell 1.50 percent in February, while prices for bread and cereals declined 2.05 percent, the statistics bureau said in a statement.

The cost of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels fell 1.02 percent in February from January.

Rwanda’s headline inflation rate slumped from 22.3 percent in December 2008 to 5.74 percent a year later and has continued to decline since. Agriculture accounts for about a third of gross domestic product in the landlocked country.

Source: Reuters