By Helena Bedwell

Georgia’s inflation rate advanced to 2 percent in December from a year earlier after reaching the lowest since 2009 in November, the statistics office said.

The rate of consumer-price increases rose from 1.9 percent in November, mainly on higher food costs, the office in Tbilisi said in an e-mail today. Prices increased 0.6 percent from November.

Inflation, which peaked at 14.3 percent last May, was forecast to slow toward the end of 2011, according to Zaza Chelidze, head of the statistics office.

Georgia’s economy probably grew as much as 6.5 percent last year, higher than the previously predicted 6 percent, Prime Minister Nika Gilauri said in December.

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