The inflation rate for the past 12 months stood at 4.01% in January this year with a monthly rate of 0.2%, down from 0.74% in December 2006, according to new data from the National Statistics Institute-INS. In January, the most significant price rise was reported in the services sector (+1.04%) and food products (+0.28%), while non-food product prices dropped by 0.2%.
The lower prices for non-food products were set by lower natural gas prices (-3.5%), drugs (-1.8%), fuel (-0.8%) and others.
And higher tariffs for services such as car insurance, water supplies, sewage services, urban transport, postal and telecom services led to increased prices in the sector.
The annual inflation rate stood at 4.87% last year, within whe national bank BNR target of 5%+/-1%. BNR set an inflation target of 4%+/-1% for 2007 with an inflation forecast of 4.7%.
