DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania’s year-on-year inflation rate fell for a fifth straight month in May to 18.2 percent from 18.7 percent a month earlier, thanks to lower increases in the cost of commodities.

Tanzanian traders deep-fry freshly caught octopus at a market in Dar es Salaam, May 4, 2010.
REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in May from the previous month, down from a 0.8 percent rise in April.

The food component, which accounts for 47.78 percent of the basket of goods used to measure inflation, also rose 0.4 percent in May, down from 0.8 percent in April. The year-on-year rate of food inflation remained unchanged at 25.3 percent.

The government’s aim is for inflation to fall to single digits by the end of 2012, although analysts say prices are not yet slowing at a sufficient pace for this target to be hit.

Like other east African countries, inflation in Tanzania was driven higher last year by global food and fuel costs, exacerbated by poor rains that both hit harvests and local hydropower production.