JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's headline consumer inflation slowed to 4.4 percent year-on-year in January from 4.7 percent in December, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday. On a month-on-month basis, inflation eased to 0.3 percent in January from 0.5 percent in December. Core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, fell to 4.1 percent year-on-year in January from 4.2 percent in December, while on a month-on-month basis it slowed to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent previously. (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)