Ethiopian Inflation Accelerates to 29.5% as Food Costs Jump

By William Davison

(Updates with food-price inflation in second paragraph.)

May 10 (Bloomberg) — Inflation in Ethiopia accelerated to 29.5 percent in April as food prices jumped, the Central Statistical Agency said.

The inflation rate increased from 25 percent in March, the Addis Ababa-based agency said on its website today. Food prices, which make up more than half of the basket of goods used to calculate overall inflation, surged 32.2 percent from a year earlier, while non-food items rose 25.6 percent, it said.

Annual inflation has increased from 5.3 percent in August following an 18 percent devaluation of the birr against the dollar on Sept. 1. In January, the government introduced price controls on goods including bread, meat, sugar and beer, citing a lack of competition in the domestic market.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous nation and the continent’s biggest coffee producer.

–Editors: Paul Richardson, Philip Sanders.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa at wdavison3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net