Romania remained in March the EU member state with the highest inflation rate

Romania maintained in March its position as the country with the highest annual inflation rate among the European Union member states, of 4 percent measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP), Eurostat data showed on Wednesday.

“The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.0%), Estonia (2.9%), Slovakia and Lithuania (both 2.5%). Compared with February, annual inflation fell in six Member States, remained stable in six and rose in fifteen,” EU’s statistical office said.

The HICP index used by Eurostat measure price with an 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 released on April 12, the annual inflation rate, measuring the evolution of consumption prices in the last year, climbed to 5 percent in March, a record level since June 2013.

In March, the food items became more expensive by 4 percent in average compared with March 2017, the non-food prices climbed by 6.6 percent and the services prices increased by 2.9 percent.

The highest prices increases were registered in March, compared with February, in fresh fruits (3.9 percent), citrus (2.8 percent) and potatoes (2,7 percent), official data show.