A general picture shows the skyline of Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam, File. REUTERS/Andrew Emmanuel

DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Tanzania’s central bank held its key interest rate unchanged at 6%, it said on Thursday.

In the two quarters to September, the central bank held the benchmark rate at 6%, from 5.5% that was announced in January when the bank introduced the rate.

The bank targets inflation of 5%, but consumer inflation has stayed comfortably below that figure, despite growing pressure on the shilling.

Inflation increased to 3.1% year-on-year in August from 3.0% the previous month, data from the statistics office showed.

(Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Christina Fincher)