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Producer price inflation eased to 8.3 percent in February.
Statistics South Africa said on Thursday that this was 0.6 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 8.9% in January.
Stats SA says the lower annual rate was driven by decreases in agriculture, other manufacturers, metal products, basic metals, and forestry.
The decreasing rate of inflation was partially counteracted by increases in mining and quarrying.
Producer price inflation was higher than expected, with a consensus forecast from Bloomberg expecting it to have fallen to an annual rate of 8.1%.