JAKARTA Indonesia's annual inflation inched up in August, but was below market expectations and still within the central bank's target range, statistics bureau data showed on Friday.

The Consumer Price Index rose 3.27% in August, below analysts' expectations of 3.33% in a Reuters poll, and compared with July's 3.08%.

Bank Indonesia's inflation target range for 2023 is 2% to 4%.

However, annual core inflation, which strips out government-controlled prices and volatile food prices, eased in August to 2.18% from 2.43% in the previous month. The poll had expected a 2.30% rate for August.

The main drivers of headline inflation acceleration were rising prices of rice, fuel and cigarettes.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices fell 0.02% in August.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman, Gayatri Suroyo and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)