Moldova records seven-fold lower annual inflation rate in 2018 against previous year

Chisinau, 14 January /MOLDPRES/ – The annual inflation rate in Moldova dropped to 0.9 per cent in 2018, well below the level recorded in the previous year, when the consumer price index was 7.3 per cent. The inflation declined considerably as a result of rising prices on: food products by 2.2 per cent, non – food goods – by 1.7 per cent and lower inflation of services rendered to the population by 2.3 per cent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS).

It is for the second time in the history of Moldova when the inflation rate is so small. In 2009, the consumer price index increased by 0.4 per cent.

The consumer prices in December 2018, compared to the same period of the previous year, had a higher growth trend in the northern region of the country – by 1.3 per cent, and in the south region prices rose – by 0,3 per cent. In the central and Chisinau regions, the upward trend in prices was 1.0 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

The official statistics also show that the consumer price index in December 2018 as compared to November 2018 accounted for 100.5 per cent. The increase in average consumer prices by 0.5 per cent was due to the 1.1 per cent increase in food prices, the rise in prices for non – food goods and the increase in tariffs for the provision of services to the population by 0.1 per cent.

In the Inflation Report №04, the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) predicts that the annual inflation rate to go down to 1.9 per cent by the end of 2018, below the lower bandwidth of ±1.5 percentage points from the inflation target of 5 per cent. For the first two consecutive quarters of 2019, annual inflation will be below the range, and at the end of the year it will rise above the upper range of the variation range.