2018.11.2103:20:00UTC+00South Africa Inflation Accelerates In October

South Africa's consumer price inflation accelerated in October after remaining unchanged in the previous month, preliminary figures from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday.

The consumer price index rose 5.1 percent year-on-year following a 4.9 percent increase in both August and September. In July, prices grew 5.1 percent.

Economists had forecast 5.2 percent inflation for October.

An inflation rate higher than 5.1 percent was last seen in May 2017, when price growth was 5.4 percent.

Core inflation, which excludes prices of items such as food, non-alcoholic beverages, fuel and energy, was 4.2 percent in October, same as in September.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI rose 0.5 percent in October, slightly slower than the 0.6 percent increase economists had forecast.

The core CPI edged up 0.1 percent monthly in October.

In September, both the CPI and the core measure rose 0.5 percent from the previous month.