Romania’s annual inflation rate, which measures the increase in consumer prices over the last 12 months, went up to 3.32% in December, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Friday. This is the highest level recorded since August 2013.

The annual inflation rate saw a rapid increase in the last months of 2017, from 1.77% in September, to 2.63% in October, 3.23% in November, and 3.32% in December.

In the last month of the year, consumer prices went up on average by 0.32% compared to November as food prices went up by 0.44%. When compared to December 2016, food prices increased by an average 4.07% and the prices of non-food products went up by 4.11%. Service prices only increased by 0.22%.

The highest price increases were recorded by eggs (+43.2%), air transport services (+23.3%), butter (+22.8%), electricity (+12.2%), and fresh fruits (+11.6%). Fuel prices, which have a wide impact on the prices of other products and services, went up by 5.85% in 2017.

Romania’s National Bank (BNR) expects the inflation rate to spike in the first quarter of this year and slowly decline until the end of the year.

Romania, among EU countries with highest annual inflation rate

editor@romania-insider.com