DUBAI, May 20 (Reuters) - Higher food prices drove Yemen's annual inflation rate to a 10-month high of 11.3 percent in February, central bank data showed on Monday.
Food inflation in the poor Arabian Peninsula state jumped to 14.3 percent year on year and 1.8 percent from January.
Overall inflation had fallen from a peak of 25 percent in October 2011 as political unrest eased, helping the economy recover. But it picked up again to 7.1 percent in January.
The central bank cut interest rates by 5 percentage points between last October and February to support the economic recovery. Its head said in April he was comfortable with the current level of rates - a three-year low of 15 percent - and expected growth to accelerate to about 7 percent in 2013 from 4.5 percent in 2012.
The recovery remains fragile in the second-poorest Arab state after Mauritania. A third of Yemen's population live on less than $2 a day, and unemployment is around 35 percent.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts Yemen's inflation to average 7.5 percent in 2013, down from 10.2 percent in 2012.
In February, annual consumer price growth without food and qat, a mild stimulant leaf that many of Yemen's 25 million people chew daily, was 7.0 percent, little changed from January.
(Reporting by Martin Dokoupil; Editing by Sami Aboudi, John Stonestreet)
((Martin.Dokoupil@thomsonreuters.com)(+971 4 362 5832)(Reuters Messaging: martin.dokoupil.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: YEMEN INFLATION/
