Pretoria - South Africa's Consumer Price Index (CPI), a method used by the Reserve Bank to measure inflation, dropped slightly to 8.5 percent in March, reports Statistics South Africa.
This is 0.1 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 8.6 percent recorded in February 2009.
The CPI figure was widely expected by economists. Senior economist at Investment Solutions Chris Hart told BuaNews on Tuesday that he expected the CPI would be closer to eight percent.
Nedbank Chief Economist Dennis Dykes also predicted the figure would be lower.
"We think it will be at around 8.4 percent. It could be slightly lower," said Mr Dykes.
Commenting on the Producer Price Inflation (PPI) which will be released on Thursday, Mr Dykes also predicted a slight improvement.
PPI for February came in at 7.3 percent year on year which is 1.9 percent lower than January's figure of 9.2 percent year on year.
