JOHANNESBURG, March 20 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's consumer inflation eased to 4 percent in February, from 4.4 percent in January, Statistic South Africa data released on Tuesday showed.

The lower inflation figures in February beat economists' consensus of 4.2 percent. South Africa's inflation rate in February was the lowest inflation level since the March of 2015.

The stubborn inflation is still within the Reserve Bank's target range of 3 percent to 6 percent.

The lower inflation figures released today does not necessarily mean lower interest rates, said Annabel Bishop, a chief economist at Investec told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The central bank bases its interest rate decisions on what inflation is likely to be six to twenty-four months in the future, instead of what it has come out recently at, Bishop added.

However, she expected the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation to average around 5.5 percent for next year. In the longer-term, she predicated the Reserve Bank, the central bank, will not cut interest rates because of lower inflation.

In the contrary, Luigi Marinus, portfolio manager at PPS Investments said, "This relatively low level of inflation will put pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates in their next meeting."

South Africa's current account deficit increased to R137.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017 from R99 billion in the previous period. This was the largest current account gap since the first quarter of 2016, the Reserve Bank said on Tuesday.

On a month-on-month basis, inflation rose to 0.8 percent in February from 0.3 percent in January.