percent -- the highest point in more than two years.

Government said yesterday that the Consumer Price Index rose to 112.3 as prices rose 0.1 percent between Janaury and February. The annual rate of inflation in January was 2.8 percent.

The increse in inflation was caused by the fuel and power sector of the CPI basket of goods, which jumped by 2.7 percernt for the year after the Fuel Adjusment Clause (FAC) rose 25 percent and pushed up the price of electricity by 2.8 percent in February.

The Statistics Department said that after removing the effect of the FAC, inflation for February remained steady at 2.8 percent, the same rate recorded in January and December.

In other sectors, Education, Recreation and Reading rose 0.3 percent as a result of increases in the prices of toys, games and hobby supplies (5.5 percent) and pleasure boats (3.6 percent).

The Transport and Vehicle sector declined 0.2 percent as an 11.2 percent fall in airfares was partially offset by rises of 3.6 percent for motorbike fuel and 3.8 percent for car fuel.

Prices in other segments were flat or increased marginally.

Inflation has been steadily increasing since last March, when the annual rate of inflation was 1.9 percent. It increased to 2.4 percent in April and spiked up to 2.6 percent in July. Since August, inflation has varied between 2.7 and 2.8 percent.