Food prices push Tanzania's inflation rate higher
A Dar es Salaam resident buys sugar at a supermarket. Tanzania has had to contend with double-digit inflation in 2008 fired by a rising commodity prices. Photo/FILE
Tanzania's year-on-year inflation rate rose to 13.3 per cent in February from 12.9 per cent in January, mainly because of higher food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
"The increase in the rate of inflation was mainly attributed to the increase of food inflation of 18.6 per cent registered in the year ended February 2009 from 18.2 per cent in the year ended January 2009," the NBS said in a statement on its Web site.
Like neighbours Kenya and Uganda, Tanzania has had to contend with double-digit inflation in 2008 fired by a rising commodity prices and the government hopes the recent fall in global prices will soon be passed on.
Tanzania's inflation rate entered double digits in September for the first time in nearly a decade.
Excluding food, Tanzania's inflation rate in February rose to 4.9 per cent from 4.8 per cent in January.
The average annual inflation rate for 2008 came in at 10.3 percent, or 6.7 per cent excluding food.
