- DUBAI: Annual inflation in Kuwait hit a 13-month low of 4.5 percent in September, the country's state news agency KUNA cited data from the Central Statistics Office as showing on Sunday.
But consumer price growth accelerated to a nine-month high of 1.1 percent month-on-month in September from 0.3 percent in August, KUNA said.
Analysts have been predicting prices in the world's No. 6 crude oil exporter will rise substantially this year on the back of higher global food and commodity costs, as well as the government's social spending.
Kuwait's economy is expected to grow by 4.7 percent this year and at the same rate next year, helped by robust crude prices and increased government spending, after an estimated 2.0 percent expansion in 2010, according to a Reuters analyst poll.
"Inflation pressures in Kuwait exist due to some of the wage hikes that we have seen in recent months, where the government handed support packages to the population earlier in the year."
"We expect that Kuwait's inflation rate will be the second-highest in the GCC this year, led only by Saudi, which is facing tight supply in its housing market and that is driving up its headline rate."