Annual inflation rate continues to drop in Moldova, falls under National Bank's target in last March

Chisinau, 11 April /MOLDPRES/ - The annual inflation rate dropped below 4.7 per cent in last March, under the 5-per cent inflation target of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM). The consumer price index continues to decrease, going down by 1.3 percentage points in the last three months, according to data by the National Statistics Bureau (BNS).

BNS today informed that the annual inflation on food products had stood at 8.8 per cent in March 2018, on non-food goods – at 2.4 per cent and on services provided to residents – at 1.3 per cent. The evolution of prices confirm the forecasts of the  National Bank, which has earlier anticipated that the annual inflation rate would diminish continuously, from 7.3 per cent, recorded in December 2017, to about 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018. Subsequently, the inflation rate will return to the variation interval of plus/minus 1.5 percentage points from the target of five per cent in the second quarter of 2019, according to the Inflation Report No 1. In last February, BNM revised downwards the inflation rate for this year to 3.7 per cent, against four percent, as it anticipated in the inflation report No 4 in last November.      

After an average 20.2-percent decrease of the regulated tariffs and prices for gas by the Administrative Board of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) in 2018, BNM stressed that, taking into account the fact that the weight of natural gas of the consumer price index structure accounts for about 2.1 per cent, the change triggered an impact of 0.4 percentage points on the consumption inflation in 2018. As a result, decision-makers recalculated the inflation indexes for January and February 2018, published before ANRE’s decision. Thus, the annual inflation rate in last January and February was revised downwards to 6 per cent and, respectively, 5 per cent, from the values of 6.5 per cent and, respectively, 5.4 per cent, published previously. Hence, BNM changed the trajectory of the annual inflation rate published on its official webpage.       

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)