Headline inflation, an indicator of the cost of living, stagnated at 10.9pc last month, according to the latest report from the Central Statistical Agency (CSA).

Last month's Consumer Price Index (CPI), which quantifies the price of a basket of goods and services, states that the rate had shown the same growth as the preceding month, January.

The report indicates that the food inflation rate in the stated period reached 10.7pc, a 0.8 percentage point decline from the previous month.

"Prices of wheat, rice, barley and sorghum have shown slight declines," reads the report, "on the other hand the price of fruit, meat, milk, cheese, eggs, butter, spices, Teffand maize increased last month."

In February non-food inflation has shown a percentage point increase that reached 11.2pc. The rate was pushed by the price increases in narcotics and stimulants, especially khat, clothing, footwear, house rent, housing repair and maintenance, energy and automobiles.

A mini-market assessment conducted by Fortune revealed that the price of automobiles, especially Toyota Vitz models, has shown an average a 12pc price increase.

While the inflationary pressure in Ethiopia has remained in double digits, Kenya managed to keep the rate in the single digits at 4.14pc. Kenya's inflation rate in February has shown a 0.6 percentage point decline from the preceding month, according to tradingeconomics.com,a New York-based statistics and data provider.

Though the rate stayed in the double digits for the past three months, the government has only managed to bring the rate down to the single digits, 9.3pc, in November of last year, but it jumped into double-digit territory the following month. Yet the rate is still lower than last fiscal year's average rate of 14.4pc.