Data from Saudi Arabia's Central Department of Statistics have indicated that inflation accelerated to a nine-month high of 4.7% in March, led by rent, fuel and food costs, Bloomberg has reported. "The good sign is that this represents higher demand in the economy," John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi in Riyadh said. "The trade-off is you are having a pick-up in inflation." Inflation is likely to average 4.6% this year, Sfakianakis said, raising an earlier estimate of 4.3%.