21 Aug 2019 16:17

Russia sees 0.1% deflation for second straight week, annual figure down to 4.4% - Rosstat

MOSCOW. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Russia had 0.1% deflation for the week of August 13-19, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

This was the second straight week of deflation. The drop in prices even accelerated before rounding, to 0.09% in the past week from 0.06% in the previous week.

There was zero inflation in the week July 30-August 5. Consumer prices fell 0.1% in the week July 23-29 and rose 0.1% in July 16-22. There was zero inflation for July 9-15.

Thus, deflation was recorded for the third time in the last four weeks - the last time that happened was at the beginning of September 2017.

Prices fell 0.2% or 0.15% before rounding in the first 19 days of August 2019 and grew 2.5% since the start of the year.

Average daily price growth for the first 19 days of August was 0.008%, compared with 0.001% in the same period of last year. On that basis, annual inflation was 4.4% on August 19, down from 4.5% on August 12, 4.6% on August 5 and 4.6% (4.58% before rounding) at the end of July.

In the past week, prices rose 1.2% for eggs, 0.6% for millet, 0.4% for rice, 0.3% for fish and 0.2% for beef, chicken and pasta products.

Granulated sugar fell 1%, mutton - 0.5%, milk - 0.4%, pork - 0.3% and sunflower oil - 0.2%.

Fruit and vegetable prices averaged down 3.9%, with drops for tomatoes - 8.7%, potatoes and carrots - 6.6% and onion - 6.3%.

Gasoline and diesel prices were unchanged in the past week.