Romania’s annual inflation rate declined to 3.8 percent in June, from 4.1 percent in May, as food prices dropped at the beginning of the summer. The rate registered in June is the lowest since February and slightly below expectations.
Compared with June 2018, the prices of food products rose by 5 percent on average, while non-food products increased by 2.9 percent. The prices of services went up by 4.3 percent, National Institute of Statistics (INS) data show.
Compared with May, consumer prices in Romania declined by 0.2 percent, as food prices decreased by 0.5 percent, non-food products’ prices went down by 0.2 percent, and services’ prices rose by 0.2 percent.
The biggest price increases compared with May were recorded for fresh fruits (5.8 percent), while the biggest monthly price decreases were registered for potatoes (11.5 percent).
The price of fuels declined by 1.5 percent on the previous month, but rose by 4.6 percent against end-2018.
The central bank had an inflation estimate of 4.2 percent for December 2019.
Romania was the country with the highest annual inflation rate among the European Union member states for most of last year in terms of inflation measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP), according to Eurostat.
The HICP index used by Eurostat measure price with a unified basket of consumer products and services for the 28 EU member states.
But the Romanian basket of consumer products and services, which includes a higher percentage of food products (31.9 percent of total basket), shows a different picture.