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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Feb 15 2011 - 11:16:40 EST
Ethiopian Jan inflation hits 17.7 pct
Tues Feb 15, 2011 4:48pm GMT
* Food prices rise 13.6 percent
* Non-food prices up for 5th straight month
(Adds details, background)
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Rising food prices helped push Ethiopia's
annual inflation rate up to 17.7 percent in January, from 14.5 percent a
month earlier and increasing for a second straight month, official data
showed on Monday.
Food prices, which have the biggest weighting in the inflation measure, rose
13.6 percent from a year earlier, the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) said.
Non-food inflation accelerated for the fifth consecutive month in January,
rising by 23.7 percent year-on-year.
Ethiopia has placed price caps on more than a dozen commodities including
some essential foodstuffs. Government officials accuse traders of
artificially inflating food prices on the back of global price increases and
a September devaluation of the birr currency ETB=.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said that if traders failed to cut prices on
essential goods in accordance with the price caps then government outlets
would start selling items at fixed prices.
While the inflation rate is on the rise, it is well below levels seen in
late 2008 and early 2009. Inflation hit 64.2 pct in July 2008 at which point
the government stopped state borrowing and increased bank reserves to drive
inflation down. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Richard Lough and
Susan Fenton)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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