Romania consolidates its status as the EU country with the highest inflation rate

Romania consolidated in July its first position in the European Union in terms of prices increases, with an annual inflation rate of 4.1 percent measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP), Eurostat data showed on Monday.

Romania has posted the highest inflation rate in the EU for most of last year and in the first half of 2019.

“The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.1 percent), Hungary (3.3 percent), Latvia and Slovakia (both 3.0 percent). Compared with June, annual inflation fell in fifteen Member States, remained stable in two and rose in eleven.,” 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.

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According to National Institute of Statistics (INS) data, the annual inflation rate, measuring the evolution of consumption prices in the last year, increased to 4.1 percent in July, from 3.8 percent in June, mainly due to a base effect.

Compared with July 2018, the prices of food products rose by 5.15 percent on average, while non-food products increased by 3.4 percent. The prices of services went up by 4.1 percent.

This year, the Romanian currency lost almost 2 percent of its value against the EUR pushing up prices.