Mozambique 2013 inflation at 3.54%

Mozambique registered an inflation rate of 3.54 percent in 2013, well within the government's target of no more than 7 percent, according to the country's authority on Thursday. The figure announced by the country's National Statistics Institute (INE) was measured by the consumer price indices for the three largest cities, Maputo, Nampula and Beira, in the southern African country along the Indian Ocean. Inflation in December was 0.57 percent, for which most of the rises were for foodstuffs, mainly because of the Christmas Day and the New Year's Day. The price of charcoal, which is still a major fuel in Mozambican families, rose by 1.3 percent in this month. Inflation was at its highest at the beginning of 2013, with a 1. 35 percent inflation rate in January. Then it fell to 1.16 percent in February, 0.3 percent in March and 0.25 percent in April, before the economy entered a period of slight deflation - prices fell by 0.42 percent in May, 0.38 percent in June, 0.23 percent in July and 0.25 percent in August. Prices began to rise again with an increase of 0.24 percent in both September and October, then 0.69 percent in November. Although the 2013 inflation was relatively lower than the target, it is higher than the rate of 2.02 percent registered in 2012.