Inflation goes up 1.03% in January

The inflation rate exceeded 1% in the first month of this year as natural gas and electricity prices went up, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced. This trend made the annualised consumer price increase go back up towards 9%. Natural gas tariffs increased by 17.1% in January, while the price of electricity went up by almost 2%. This trend had a major impact on the inflation rate in January, which stood at 1.03%. Against this background, the inflation rate for January 2005 – January 2006 went up to 8.89%, 0.3% higher in comparison to the same statistic for December. The basket of goods used to calculate the consumer prices index indicates a drop in the importance of utilities (electricity, gases, central heating) from 1050 points (10.05% of the total) to 964 points (9.64%). Food price increases, as well as rates for services, remained moderate, standing at no more than 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. A notable increase is the 3.6% rise in water, sewage and sanitation tariffs. ZF