Johannesburg - South Africa's headline consumer inflation edged up to 5.4 percent year-on-year in December, slightly below market expectations, from 5.3 percent in November, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
On a month-on-month basis, CPI quickened to 0.3 percent compared with 0.1 percent in November.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a year-on-year rate of 5.5 percent and 0.4 percent month-on-month.
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, was steady at 5.3 percent year-on-year but edged up to 0.3 percent on a month-on-month basis.
Stats S.A. said the annual headline CPI average for 2013 ticked up to 5.7 percent, compared with 5.6 percent the previous year. - Reuters