Weekly inflation in Russia quickens to 0.1%, but annual below 2.7%
MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - Russian inflation was 0.1% in the week October 17-23, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Russia had zero inflation the previous six weeks, 0.1% deflation the week before that and 0.2% deflation the week prior to that. Prices were unchanged for the week August 15-21 and fell 0.1% for each of the three weeks prior to that, the first deflation since early August 2016.
When rounded, consumer prices rose 0.2% in the first 23 days of October and rose 1.9% between January 1 and October 23.
Russia had 0.1% deflation for the month of September after consumer prices fell by a record 0.5% in August. This was the first September deflation since 1997. It was also the first time in 20 years that consumer prices have fallen for two straight months - the first and so far the only time this has ever happened before was the period August-September 1997.
There was average daily price growth of 0.009% in the first 23 days of October. Average daily price growth was 0.020% in the equivalent period of October last year. On that basis and given that annualized inflation was 2.96% at the end of September, it follows that inflation in annual terms was below 2.7% - between 2.6% and 2.7% - as of October 23, which is more than a percentage point below the Central Bank's 4% target. However it should be borne in mind when rounding the figure as of October 23 this year that in October 2016, monthly inflation was lower than weekly inflation, at 0.4% compared to 0.5%.
Price growth was driven partly by fruit and vegetables, which have started to grow in price, last week by 3.4% on average and the week before by 1.5%. In the past week, with cucumbers and tomatoes went up 24.6% and 20.4%, respectively, while cabbage, onion, carrots and apples fell 1.0%-2.3% in price.
In the past week, eggs went up 1.0%, and frozen fish, bread, butter, margarine, milk, smetana cream and tvorog cheese went up 0.2%-0.4%.
But prices fell 1.6% for granulated sugar, 1.3% for buckwheat and 0.2%-0.3% for sunflower oil, millet and flour.
Gasoline prices were practically unchanged and diesel went up 0.3% in price.