Inflation accelerates to 2.5%: Details

Consumer inflation in Ukraine in August 2020 in annual terms amounted to 2.5%, up from 2.4% reported in July, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.

Consumer prices in August decreased by 0.2% to the previous month, while increasing by 1.2% from year-start, the stats agency reported on September 9.

Prices up:

Eggs, rice, meat, and meat products, as well as sunflower oil went up by 3.4-0.9%.

Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products were 0.5% more expensive, the latter due to the rise of tobacco products by 1.2%.

Tariffs for utility services, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels went up 5.7%, mainly due to the rise in prices for natural gas by 37.7%.

Transport prices increased by 1.2%, primarily as a result of the rise of fuel and lubricants prices by 2.8%, and cars – by 2.4%.

Prices down:

Prices for food and soft drinks on consumer markets decreased by 1.5%: most of all, for vegetables (by 13.5%) and fruit (by 8.4%). Prices for fermented milk products, soft drinks, processed cereal products, pasta, and sugar slid by 0.9-0.6%.

Read alsoHigher minimum wage not to affect inflation pace – NBUClothing and footwear went down by 3.0%, including (separately) footwear – by 4.0% and clothing – by 2.3%.

The State Statistics Service recalls that the report has no data available from the occupied Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as the occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Inflation: background

• The National Bank predicts that inflation will get into the target range of 5% +/- 1 percentage point by the end of the year due to the gradual recovery of the global economy and the rise in energy prices.
• In 2019, inflation slowed down to 4.1%, hitting a six-year low.