Inflation slows to 29 percent in November
Nov 30, 2011
Uganda's year-on-year inflation rate fell to 29.0 percent in November, slowing for the first time since June thanks to lower food prices and after aggressive tightening by the central bank.
Uganda's year-on-year inflation rate fell to 29.0 percent in November, slowing for the first time since June thanks to lower food prices and after aggressive tightening by the central bank.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday the consumer price index (CPI) inched up 0.1 percent in November from a month earlier, adding it had revised its headline inflation figure for October to 30.4 percent from 30.5 percent.
"The main inflation driver is food prices inflation ... food price inflation decreased to 40.3 percent for the year ending November 2011 from 45.8 registered in October 2011," the statistics office statement said.
"The decrease in prices for petrol and diesel recorded in most centers also contributed to the overall reduction in the headline inflation rate," it said.
Prices of sweet potatoes, cassava, beans, groundnuts and sugar all fell, the statistics bureau said, leading to a 0.1 percent drop in food prices from a month earlier.
The core rate of inflation - which excludes food crops, fuel, electricity and metred water -- edged lower to 30.6 percent in November from 30.8 percent in October.
On a monthly basis, the core rate inched up 0.5 percent.
Reuters
Uganda's central bank has taken aggressive tightening measures and its benchmark lending rate hit 23 percent in November, up from 13 percent in July, in a bid to curb inflationary pressures and dampen credit growth.
The bank had said it expected inflation to peak soon, before declining in 2012, and for core inflation reaching single-digits by the end of next year