The consumer price inflation in Romania eased to 9.44% y/y in July (+10.25% y/y in June), falling for the first time in the single-digit area, the statistics office INS announced.

The further decline to 7.5% y/y at the end of the year is questioned by robust wage rise (+15.7% y/y in June), and the shift towards the 4.4% y/y target for the end-2024 may be subject to risks generated by the fiscal and income policies.

The food prices still increased by 16.24% y/y in July, the prices of non-food prices (that include energy goods) increased by only 4.25% y/y as the price of fuels dropped by some 9% y/y, and the prices of electricity and natural gas remained close to the values seen in July 2022.

The 9% y/y drop in the car fuels’ prices made a negative 0.7pp contribution to the overall inflation figure (+9.44% y/y) – meaning that all the other prices taken together still increased by more than 10% y/y as of July.

The prices of services increased by 11.65% y/y in June.

(Photo: Bizroug/ Dreamstime)

iulian@romania-insider.com