Weekly inflation spikes to 0.4% on tariff hikes; annual inflation falls below 7% - Rosstat
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - Inflation in Russia increased to 0.4% in the period June 25-July 1 due to indexation of rates on utilities that took effect on July 1, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Wednesday.
Inflation in the year so far totals 3.8%.
Weekly inflation was 0.1% in each of the previous four weeks and 0.2% in the two weeks before that.
Inflation in the first day of July was 0.3% (due to the tariff increases) compared with 0.5% on the same day last year and 1.2% in the entire month of July 2012.
Inflation in the latest week was just half the level of June 26-July 2 period of 2012, when it equaled 0.8%
Moreover, year-to-date inflation as of June 24, 2013, was 3.5%, compared with 2.8% in the same period of 2012, while year-to-date inflation as of July 1 was 3.8%, the same level as a year earlier.
The latest weekly inflation data suggests that the annualized inflation rate on July 1 will be 0.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier, or roughly 6.6% compared with 7.3% in the previous week and 7.4% at the end of May. A more precise estimate for annualized inflation will become available at the end of the week, when monthly inflation data for June is released.
The Economic Development Ministry has forecast that inflation may slow to 0.3% in June from 0.7% in May (0.9% in June 2012), meaning that annualized inflation would slow to 6.8% in June from 7.4% in May. Given the data for the first day of July, the annual rate might drop to 6.6%.
Fruit and vegetable prices rose 0.7% on average in the latest week, including 4.4% for carrots and 2.6% for potatoes. Cabbage prices fell 3.3% and onion prices were down 0.3%.
Prices for cheese and dried milk edged up 0.2%, while prices declined 1.4% for eggs and 0.2%-0.4% for chicken, lamb and buckwheat groats. Prices for gasoline and diesel fuel were unchanged.
Meanwhile, prices for electricity rose 7.6%, the price of various other housing utilities increased 2.2%-3.5% and above-ground public transportation fares rose 0.2%-0.7%.
The Economic Development Ministry's official 2013 inflation forecast is 5.8%-5.9%. A consensus forecast among analysts surveyed by Interfax at the end of June was for 2013 inflation to equal 6.1%. Russia had 6.6% inflation in 2012.