February 2018 inflation rate picked up by 4.6 percent, higher than the 4.1 percent growth in January 2018 and 3.9 percent during the same period a year ago. The uptrend resulted from the faster annual gain recorded in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 5.7 percent and a double-digit annual increment in alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 12.6 percent. Moreover, an annual increases were also seen in food and non-alcoholic beverages (4.9%), transport (3.5%) and communication at 0.4 percent.

Lower annual hikes, however, were seen in clothing and footwear (4.4%) and Health (3.8%) while the rest of the commodity groups retained its previous month's rates: