Bulgaria’s consumer prices grew by 7.7% year-on-year in August, following an 8.5% annual increase in July, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Friday.
Compared to the previous month, consumer prices rose by 0.4% in August, following a 0.9% monthly climb in July.
Inflation in Bulgaria is expected to slow further next year, Minister of Economy and Industry Bogdan Bogdanov was quoted as saying on Thursday by public radio BNR.
In August, on a monthly basis, the most significant price increases were observed in the transport sector (4.6%), health (0.6%), restaurants and hotels (0.6%), and miscellaneous goods and services (0.4%). Conversely, prices for clothing and footwear experienced a 2.3% decrease, while the cost of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels declined by 0.3%.
Bulgaria’s inflation rate since the beginning of the year stood at 3.7%, while the average annual inflation for the past 12 months was 13.4%, the NSI data show.
Annual inflation under the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), which allows comparison on the same terms among all EU member states, stood at 7.5% in August.
Continuing its 14-month-long fight against inflation, the European Central Bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a record 4%, its tenth increase in a row. ECB President Christine Lagarde, however, signaled that this rate increase might be the last, saying that the current rate level “will make a substantial contribution” to reducing inflation to the 2% target.
Source : SeeNews
