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afrol.com, 27 March - The index of consumer prices rose by 8.16 percent in February, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), thus keeping the inflation at the high rate of 13.67 percent only in the first months of 2001. According to the last numbers published by INE in the weekly journal "El Jornal" on Sunday, prices in February rose 3.6% faster in February than in January this year (up from 5.10% to 8.16%), indicating the upwards trend of the inflation in Angola, contrary to government budgeting. Contributing most to the accelerated inflation in February were the "fuels and electricity sector", in which prices rose by 17.23 percent, and the sector of health and medicine, for which a rise in prices of 10.98 percent was registered. Among the fourteen commercial products registering the highest inflation rate in February, half were alimentation and food products. With an additional rise in consumer prices of over 13 percent in January and February, the annual inflation rate in Angola (February 200 to February 2001) was calculated at 234.6 percent. The statistical abstract however only represents the situation in the capital Luanda. The numbers were calculated by INE, based on 14,000 observations following the prices of 160 concrete products in 20 markets and 67 resale localities in Luanda. Studies outside the capital are not carried out. While the inflation rate in fact seems to be rising, the government's budget, passed through the Angolan parliament on 6 March, foresaw an annual inflation rate of "only" 75 percent. The official numbers for the year 2000 inflation was put at a level of 268.31 percent, while the government's budget had foreseen 87 percent. The August 2000 budget revision remained optimistic, and put the expected inflation rate at 172 percent. The Angolan government maintains it will reach a lower inflation rate in 2001, although the trends go in the opposite direction. Sources: Based on ANGOP, INE and RDP
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