National Bank (BNR) forecasts show a descending evolution of inflation for 2009, when the annual inflation rate will not exceed 4%, Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu said on Tuesday, quoted by Mediafax news agency.

BNR provisions are optimistic, he said.

Consumer good prices fell 0.09% in August this year - the second month of descending inflation in Romania's post-1989 history. The annual inflation rate thus reached 8.02%, influenced by cheaper services, according to data announced by the National Statistics Institute in early September.

The first negative inflation rate was reported in August 2006 when prices fell by 0.07%.