Inflation accelerates after data overhaul

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South African inflation accelerated after the statistics office revised the data used to calculate household expenditure, giving policymakers reason to be cautious about cutting interest rates next month.

Consumer prices rose 3.2% in January from a year earlier, compared with unrevised 3% in the prior month, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. That matched the median of 16 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.