August 2006 was the first time in post-communist Romania that the inflation rate turned negative, according to the National Statistics Institute-INS. A 0.07% deflation brought the overall inflation rate for 2006 so far to 2.71%, close to the 4-5% yearly target set by by the Government and the National Bank.
According to the INS, the drop was based on a 0.33% fall of food product prices, more than compensating a 0.14% boost of non-food good prices which was caused mainly by higher cigarette (1.2% up) and fuel (0.7%) prices.
