Food inflation in Russia to be 9%-11% in 2012 - expert
MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - Food inflation in Russia this year will run to 9%-11%, according to the director of the analytical center SovEkon, Andrei Sizov.
"In the first half of this year, food inflation was 5.8%. Grain prices were stable during that time, and growth was prompted by different reasons. Expectations are that food inflation for the year will be from 9% to 11%," Sizov said during a roundtable discussion on the subject of Food Security: Prognoses, Risks, Concerns in Moscow on Wednesday.
Sizov said that food inflation was at a record low level of 4% last year.
Regardless of the higher forecast for this year, food inflation will have a clear downward trend. It was 15%-16% in 2007-2008.
Rising prices for primary agricultural product are reflected in food prices for several months now, he said. Lately, the grain-price growth rate "is less defined than in the drought-stricken 2010," he said. In the second half of that agricultural year, price growth was 70% (30% this year).
SovEkon projects that Russia's gross grain harvest this year will weigh in at 72-75 million tonnes, some 42 million tonnes of that wheat - roughly the same as in 2010, Sizov said.