Tanzania's inflation slows in January due to food prices

DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzanian inflation fell in January, helped by a slower rises in food prices, the statistics office said on Monday. The National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement inflation fell to 6.5 per cent year-on-year in January from 6.8 per cent a month earlier.

Prices increased by 0.7 per cent month-on-month in January from a 0.5 per cent rise in December 2015, the NBS said. It said food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation fell to 10.7 per cent in the year to January from 11.1 per cent in December 2015.

The statistics office said the weight given to food in the basket of goods and services used to calculate Tanzania’s inflation rate had also been cut to 38.5 per cent from 47.8 per cent previously. Tanzania’s Finance and Planning Minister Philip Mpango said last week inflation was expected to remain in single digits and fall to 6.0 per cent by June 2016 and stay between 5 and 8 per cent in the medium term.