Consumer price index stepped up eight fold to 0.8 percent in September and the inflation calculated by this year’s result is likely to exceed past year’s 9 percent.
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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The Inflation Surprises
It looks like former Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref has resigned in good time. Consumer price index stepped up eight fold to 0.8 percent in September and the inflation calculated by this year’s result is likely to exceed past year’s 9 percent.
In terms of the price growth, the first month of this fall was the worst since 2000, Russia’s Statistics Service emphasized Friday when reporting the shocking 0.8-percent surge during a month. The prices stepped up just 0.1 percent in September of 2007 and of 2006. Even the most pessimistic forecasts predicted the price growth of no more than 0.5 percent. The forecast of Economic Development Ministry was 0.4 percent and the Central Bank of Russia predicted 0.2 percent.
Indeed, fruit and vegetables traditionally lost 8.8 percent, but oil and cheese stepped up 13.5 percent each, butter climbed 9.4 percent, sour-milk products soared 7.9 percent and milk gained 7.2 percent. In general, the price increase hit 89 percent of food products.
At the same time, the cost of the minimal food basket in Russia lost 1 percent to 1,640.6 rubles. Paradoxically, but the poorest suffered less from the current increase.
The bad news is that the problems go beyond the agrarian sector; economic analysts emphasize high inflation environment in economy on the eve of elections. Economic Development Ministry met behind closed doors Thursday in an effort to shape methods to prevent the price escalation in all production chains. The cabinet and the president are expected to deliberate today on the urgent actions to contain inflation.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 08, 2007
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