Ethiopia's inflation rate has picked up pace in June mainly driven by surge in prices of non-food items, the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency monthly inflation report indicated last week.

The Consumer Price Index grew at an annual rate of 7.4% in June compared with 6.3% in May, the first month of increase after a steady decline over the last year.

The Non-food price index is 11.9% for June compared to 9.8% in May and food inflation in June was registered at 3.7% compared to 3.4% in May,  according to the Agency's report.

At the beginning of the past Ethiopian Fiscal Year (July 2012), the monthly general inflation was at 21.5% and it slowly plummeted to  a single digit.

The Report also indicated that the country level overall inflation rate rose by 13.5% in June 2013 compared to a similar period a year ago. The country level food inflation increased by 12.6% and non-food inflation rate increased by 14.8% in June 2013 compared to a similar period in June 2012.

Source: Capital