By Jason McLure

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s annual inflation rate declined to 59.6 percent in September from 61.7 percent in August, the Central Statistical Agency said.

Food prices increased by 80.9 percent, slower than the annualized rate of 85 percent in August, the Addis Ababa-based agency said in a report handed to Bloomberg News today.

Drought and the boom in global food prices have helped to fuel price increases in the Horn of Africa country. In September 2007, the annual inflation rate was 22.6 percent.