JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's headline consumer inflation (CPI) decelerated to 5.3 percent year-on-year in April from 6.1 percent in March, according to Statistics South Africa on Wednesday.
The Statistics South Africa's report shows the slowdown of the country's stubborn inflation led the South African rand to firm to a new four-week high. The rand strengthened to R12.98 to the U.S. dollar after the release of the data from R13.07.
According to Statistic South Africa, on a month-on-month basis, inflation fell to 0.1 percent in April from 0.6 percent previously.
An economist with Investec, Kamilla Kaplan contributed the lower inflation rate to cheaper fuel. The prices of fuel has dropped slightly with petrol dropping 24 cents per liter and diesel 10c per liter in April.
Last month, food inflation also decelerated to 6.7 percent year-on-year, Wandile Sihlobo, economist with Agbiz told Xinhua.
"It means that South Africa's food prices are at the lowest levels in 18 months. This is a reflection of the benefits of higher agricultural output this year following good weather conditions across the country. We think that there is still room for further, but moderate deceleration in the next few months," he said.
