Romania posts highest inflation rate in the EU for 8th month in a row in September

Romania maintained in September its position as the country with the highest annual inflation rate among the European Union member states for the eighth month in a row, of 4.7 percent measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP), Eurostat data showed on Wednesday.

“The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.7%), Hungary (3.7%) and Bulgaria (3.6%). Compared with August 2018, annual inflation fell in nine Member States, remained stable in four and rose in fourteen,” EU’s statistical branch said.

The HICP index used by Eurostat measure price with a unified basket of consumer products and services for the 28 member states.

But the Romanian basket of consumer products and services, which includes a higher percentage of food products, shows a different picture.

According to National Institute of Statistics (INS) data, the annual inflation rate, measuring the evolution of consumption prices in the last year, slightly declined to 5 percent in September, from 5.1 percent in August, but remain near the 5-year high level registered in May and June, of 5.4 percent.

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Compared with September 2017, the prices of food products rose by 4.4 percent on average, while non-food products increased by 6.6 percent. The prices of services went up by 2.5 percent.

Compared with August, consumer prices in Romania increased by 0.5 percent, as food prices rose by 0.8 percent, while non-food products’ prices went up by 0.3 percent, and services’ prices rose by 0.3 percent.