Ministry sees annual inflation slowing to 14.9-15% in Nov from 15.6% in Oct
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The Economic Development Ministry estimates that the slowdown of annual inflation in Russia will accelerate to 14.9-15% in November due to the effect of the high base in the last months of 2014, the ministry said in a monitoring report published on Friday.
"In annual terms, inflation in October dropped to 15.6% from a new peak of 15.8% in August," the ministry recalled.
Consumer price inflation was 0.7% in October compared to 0.6% in September, but core inflation adjusted for seasonal factors slowed to 0.7% from 0.8% in August and September. Consumer prices rose by 0.4% in the first half of November. But after rising 0.2% in the previous five weeks, price growth slowed to 0.1% in the last week amid the stabilization of the ruble and the ongoing slump in demand. In light of this, the ministry expects that month-on-month inflation will not exceed 0.6-0.7% in November, compared to 1.3% a year earlier.
"In the first ten months of this year, prices rose by 11.2%. And consumer price growth in August-October was slightly higher than forecast, mostly due to the significant weakening of the ruble in June-September and stronger inflationary expectations. Administrative factors (the tightening of the customs regime since August and others), which led to the unbalancing of certain markets, also intensified inflation," the ministry said.
The second wave of the ruble's depreciation had the most impact on rapid growth of prices for nonfood goods, which, with the exception of gasoline, rose by 1.1% in October, like in September, the ministry said. Price growth will slow in November, but it is still higher than usual for this month of the year. Such high price growth - 16.6% year-on-year in October - is due to a bigger drop in the supply of goods than decline in demand.