Inflation in Russia 0.09% in week Aug 15-21, annual figure rises to nearly 4.9%

MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) - Russia had 0.09% consumer price inflation for the week August 15-21, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Russia had 0.10% inflation for the week August 8-14, 0.01% inflation for the week August 1-7, 0.13% in the week July 25-31, 0.23% for July 18-24 and 0.18% for July 11-17.

There was 0.20% price growth for the first 21 days of August and 3.62% growth since the start of the year.

It follows from data for the first 21 days of August this year and last that annual inflation in Russia was 4.88% as of August 21, up from 4.63% on August 14 and 4.30% at the end of July, based on weekly prices; and 4.88%, up from 4.66% on August 7, based on average daily data for the whole of August 2022 - the Russian Economic Development Ministry started calculating annual inflation this way in February this year.

There was 0.52% deflation in August 2022, so the rise in annual inflation in August this year comes as no surprise.

In the past week, prices rose for pork and chicken meat - 1.4% and sunflower oil - 1.0%.

Fruit and vegetables fell 3.1% on average, compared with a drop of 2.4% the previous week, including for cabbage - 8.1%, onions - 7.9%, potatoes - 6.1%, tomatoes - 6.0%, carrots - 5.1%, beetroot - 3.0% and apples - 1.6%. Prices rose for cucumbers - 3.3% and bananas - 0.5%.

Prices rose for televisions - 0.8%, smartphones - 0.6%, Russian brands domestic cars and edged boards - by 0.5%.

Gasoline went up 0.6% and diesel fuel 1.3%.

Economy class air fares fell 0.7% over the past week after rising 0.9% the previous week.