Falling consumer prices pull down inflation to historic low of 0.66 pct

Consumer prices went down by 0.3 percent in June 2014 compared to the previous month on cheaper food and services, pulling down annual inflation rate to a new historic low of 0.66 percent, according to the data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INSSE).       

Hence, in June 2014, both prices of food and services dropped by 0.7 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, compared to May 2014, while price of non-food goods went up by 0.1 percent.  As regards the evolution in the first half of the year, food prices increased by 0.11 percent compared to the level recorded in December 2013. Non-food goods also became more expensive after a 2.3 percent increase in their price as well as services whose price went up by 0.95 percent.

In the same period, January 1 – June 30, 2014 the monthly average inflation rate was 0.2 percent, compared to 0.3 percent in the similar period of 2013.

Overall, the average price change was 1.7 percent over the last 12 months (July 2013 – June 2014) as compared to the previous 12 months (June 2012 – June 2013) based on the Consumer Price Index, while increasing by 1.5 percent given the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).

In the report released in May 2014, Romania’s National Bank projects an annual inflation rate of 3.3 percent at end-2014, 0.2 percentage points below the level forecasted in February 2014.