Kuwait, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, posted annual inflation of 2.8 per cent in April in line with levels since the start of the year as food and transport costs stayed steady, the central bank statistics office said on Tuesday.

Consumer price growth is expected to pick up speed again this year as economies in the world's largest oil exporting region recover though sluggish credit growth should limit expansion to low single digits.

On the month, consumer prices in the Gulf country remained unchanged in April, following a 0.8 per cent rise in the previous month, the data showed.

Housing prices, which have the largest weight of 27 per cent in the overall basket, stayed flat month on month in April, after rising 1.4 per cent in March.

Food prices, which account for 18 percent of the basket, fell by 0.1 per cent from the previous month, following a 0.8 percent rise in March.

Transport prices, the third biggest component, rose 0.1 percent after remaining unchanged in March.

Inflation in OPEC member Kuwait was at 2.9 percent year-on-year in March, after touching a three-and-half year low of 1.6 percent in November.

A Reuters poll forecast Kuwait's inflation at 4.0 percent for the full year of 2010, the same as last year.-Reuters