Romania’s annual inflation rate declined to 3.9 percent in August, from 4.1 percent in July, as food prices slightly decreased in the last month of the summer. The rate registered in August is slightly above expectations (market consensus at 3.8 percent).
Compared with August 2018, the prices of food products rose by 5 percent on average, while non-food products increased by 3 percent. The prices of services went up by 4.2 percent, National Institute of Statistics (INS) data show.
Compared with July, consumer prices in Romania increased by 0.06 percent, as food prices decreased by 0.3 percent, non-food products’ prices went up by 0.2 percent, and services’ prices rose by 0.25 percent.
The biggest price increases month-on-month were recorded for flight tickets (11.5 percent) and citrus fruits (2.4 percent), while the biggest monthly price decreases were registered for fresh fruits (5.6 percent) and potatoes (4.1 percent).
The price of fuels declined by 0.15 percent against 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.