DAR ES SALAAM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's year-on-year headline inflation rate for March increased to 6.4 percent, compared with that of 5.5 percent in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on Monday.
The NBS statement, issued in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, attributed the rising inflation rate to an increase in prices of food including rice, sugar and maize flour.
"The overall index went up to 108.44 in March 2017, from 101.93 recorded in March 2016," said the statement.
The statement added that food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation rate for March increased to 11.0 percent from 8.7 percent recorded in February.
Some food items that contributed to the increased inflation were rice by 4.7 percent, sugar by 3.9 percent, maize flour by 6.7 percent, sorghum grain by 4.1 percent, cooking banana by 4.6 percent, cassava fresh by 7.7 percent, vegetables by 4.0 percent and dried sardines by 3.2 percent.
The statement said non-food items that contributed to the increased inflation rate included cooking gas by 11.9 percent, petrol by 4.6 percent and diesel by 3.2 percent.
The monthly headline inflation rate for March increased by 1.4 percent compared with 1.0 percent in February, according to the statement.
