KIGALI: Food, transport and energy prices went up in Rwanda's towns in December, pushing the year-on-year urban inflation to 8.34 percent from 7.39 percent in November, data showed on Sunday.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, which have a 35.38 percent weighting on the urban index, were up 11.22 percent over the same month a year before, and down by 0.53 percent from November, the National Institute of Statistics Of Rwanda said in a statement.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index was up 6.81 percent year-on-year, while the transport index rose 9.12 percent.
Rwanda has had a better run than other countries in east Africa, including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, where inflation is in double-digits.
Rwanda's central bank raised its key repo rate by 50 basis points to 7.0 percent in November after increasing forecasts for both growth and inflation for 2011.
The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that Rwanda's economic growth was expected to slow in this year compared with 2011 and that further tightening of monetary policy may be needed to contain inflation.
Rwanda's central bank has forecast that the economy may expand 7.6 percent in 2012 after 8.8 percent growth last year.
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