South Africa's consumer inflation rose to 5.1 percent in October from 4.9 percent in September, according to figures released by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday.

The data show the general consensus by many economists who predicted the consumer price index would be hovering around 5.2 percent in October.

"The main driver of the last month's inflation was a price increase," said TreasuryOne, a treasury services company in South Africa, in a note to the clients.

The country's inflation threatened to breach the central bank's inflation target band of 3 percent-6 percent.

Inflation is the yardstick used by the central bank's monetary committee to set repurchase rates.

South Africa's monetary committee is expected to announce its next repo rate on Thursday.

To preserve price stability in the country, the International Monetary Fund this week advised the South African central bank to keep inflation around 4.5 percent.