Weekly inflation in Russia accelerates to 0.3%, annual rises to 8.3% - Rosstat
MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - Weekly inflation in Russia was 0.3% in the week of October 14-20 the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Inflation was 0.2% in each of the preceding four weeks.
It is the first week to see 0.3% inflation since the first week of July, when utility rate hikes took effect.
Average daily price growth in the first 20 days of October was 0.033%, up from 0.03% in the first 13 days of October, 0.022% in September 2014 and 0.018% in October 2013. On that basis, consumer price growth in the third week of October was 0.27%, up from 0.22% in the second week and 0.20% in the week of September 30-October 6.
Rosstat stopped publishing inflation figures for the same dates last year in August 2014, but inflation was 0.2% in the week October 15-21 last year.
In other words, inflation on an annualized basis accelerated to 8.3% on October 20 from 8.2% on October 13, 8% at the end of September and 7.6% at the end of August. Annualized inflation is now 0.3 percentage points above the Central Bank's key rate.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in the first 20 days of October and 7.0% in the year so far, compared with 0.4% and 5.2% on the same date last year respectively. Inflation was 0.6% in October 2013.
Prices for fruit and vegetables drove inflation for the third week in a row, rising 2.8% in the latest week (compared with 1.7% in the preceding week. Prices for cucumbers and tomatoes were up 12.2% and 12.8% respectively and were up 2.7% for potatoes and 2.1% for onion. Cabbage prices, meanwhile, declined 0.4%.
Prices on food products continue to rise at relatively fast pace following Russia's imposition of an embargo on many food products from Western country in response to sanctions against Russia. Prices rose 0.8% for cheese (up 0.5% in the previous week), wieners - up 0.6% (up 0.4%), fish - up 0.5% (up 0.3%), butter - up 0.4% (up 0.3%), chicken - up 0.3% (0.3%) and pork and beef - up 0.2% (0.2%).
Granulated sugar prices declined 0.6% and the price of mutton declined 0.3%.
Gasoline prices rose 0.2% in the latest week and diesel fuel prices were up 0.1%.
The latest target inflationary forecast from the Economic Development Ministry is 7.5%. Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said in the middle of September that there were risks that inflation could reach 8% for the year. He said inflation in October would amount to 0.8%-0.9%.
The Russian Central Bank did not raise its key interest rate in September, but warned that it was prepared to tighten monetary policy if there was a danger that inflation would grow. Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina said in early October that inflation this year "will be around 8%."
