Romania’s inflation rate slows down to 4.3 pct in October on slower food prices’ increase

Romania’s annual inflation rate has declined to 4.3 percent in September, from 5 percent in September, mainly due to slower food prices’ increases, National Institute of Statistics (INS) data show.

In May and June, Romania posted the biggest annual inflation rate since February 2013, of 5.4 percent but the consumer prices index declined during the summer and autumn.

Compared with October 2017, the prices of food products rose by 3.7 percent on average, while non-food products increased by 5.3 percent. The prices of services went up by 2.7 percent.

Compared with September, consumer prices in Romania increased by 0.5 percent, as food prices rose by 0.6 percent, while non-food products’ prices went up by 0.5 percent, and services’ prices rose by 0.35 percent.

The biggest price increases compared with September were recorded for other vegetables (6.9 percent) and potatoes (5.5 percent), while the biggest monthly price decreases were registered for citrus (-7.1 percent) and fresh fruits (-2 percent).

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The price of fuels rose by 1.7 percent month-on-month and by 8.6 percent compared with December 2017.

The central bank has an inflation estimate of 3.5 percent for December 2018.

Romania is the country with the highest annual inflation rate among the European Union member states, of 4.7 percent measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) in September, 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 (33.2 percent of total basket), shows a different picture.