Romania cedes to Estonia the first place in the EU in terms of inflation

Romania fell in October on the second position in the European Union in terms of inflation, behind Estonia, with an annual inflation rate of 4.2 percent measured by Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP), Eurostat data showed on Friday.

Romania has posted the highest inflation rate in the EU for eight months in a row until September.

“The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (4.5 percent), Romania (4.2 percent) and Hungary (3.9 percent). Compared with September 2018, annual inflation fell in eight Member States, remained stable in five and rose in fourteen,” 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.

According to National Institute of Statistics (INS) data, the annual inflation rate, measuring the evolution of consumption prices in the last year, declined to 4.3 percent in October, from 5 percent in September, mainly due to slower food prices’ increases.

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.