Annual inflation in Kuwait hit a 13-month low of 4.5 percent in September, state news agency KUNA reported Sunday, citing data from the Central Statistics Office. 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. 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. “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.”
