Year-on-year, inflation slowed mainly for food & non-alcoholic beverages (0.5 percent vs 0.7 percent in January) and transport (3.3 percent vs 4.0 percent). Also, cost eased for clothing & footwear (3.3 percent vs 3.7 percent) and education (1.8 percent vs 2.0 percent). In addition, communication prices continued to fall (-2.1 percent vs -2.4 percent)
On the other hand, prices advanced faster for housing & utilities (12.3 percent vs 11.7 percent); furnishings (4.1 percent vs 3.9 percent); restaurants & hotels (3.6 percent vs 2.6 percent); alcoholic beverages & tobacco (2.5 percent vs 2.2 percent); miscellabeous goods & services (2.6 percent vs 2.5 percent) and health (1.5 percent vs 1.0 percent).
On a monthly basis, consumer prices inched up 1.1 percent, after increasing 0.5 percent in the prior month. Main upward pressure came from prices of transport (0.1 percent vs -0.8 percent) and housing & utilities (3.3 percent vs -0.3 percent), including charcoal (3.1 percent) and firewood (7.1 percent). Meantime, food cost rose slightly less (1.3 percent vs 1.4 percent), with positive contributions of rice (1.6 percent); maize grains (1.3 percent); maize flour (2.9 percent); fresh fish (6.4 percent); dried sardines (1.6 percent); fruits (1.5 percent); vegetables (1.7 percent); sweet potatoes (2.7 percent); dry cassava (2.2 percent) and cooking banana (3.4 percent).
Annual core inflation, which excludes food and energy, stood at 3.1 percent in February, unchanged from the previous two months. It holds at the highest level since December 2014.