Burundi’s year-on-year inflation rate rose to 17.6% in July from 17.3% a month earlier, driven by housing, water and energy price rises, the country’s statistics office said.
Activists and trade unions warned last week that they were planning to call a general strike in the coffee-producing nation in protest against high utility costs and power rationing.
The price index for housing, water and energy surged 30.4% in the year to end-July, from 29.9% in June, the Institute of Economic Studies and Statistics (ISTEEBU) said.
Only 3% of Burundi’s population has access to electricity, while demand for power grows by about 13 percent every year.
The International Monetary Fund forecast this month that inflation would drop to 14.7% by the end of 2012 before easing further to 8.4% at the close of 2013.
Reuters
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