South Africa’s inflation accelerates

Pretoria: South Africa’s inflation rate rose for the first time in four months in August, giving the Reserve Bank less scope to cut interest rates amid a global economic slowdown. Inflation accelerated to 5.0 per cent from 4.9 per cent in July, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said on its website on Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 20 economists was 5 per cent. Prices rose 0.2 per cent in the month.