Weekly inflation in Russia accelerated to 0.26%

Inflation in Russia in the week from January 31 to February 6 accelerated to 0.26% after 0.21% and 0.14% over the past two weeks, follows from the materials of Rosstat.

Since the beginning of February, consumer price growth has amounted to 0.22%, and since the beginning of 2023 – 1%. In January 2022, monthly growth was 0.99%, Rosstat noted.

During this period, fruit and vegetable prices rose by an average of 5.1%, prices for cucumbers increased by 12.7%, onions – by 11.5%, tomatoes – by 4.6%, carrots – by 3%, bananas – by 2.4%. Sausages and cheeses rose in price by 0.4%, and change, cookies and vodka – by 0.3%. At the same time, buckwheat (-1%), black tea (-0.6%), pork (-0.5%), chicken and sausages (-0.3%) fell in price.

In the consumer goods segment, growth in prices was recorded for shampoos and tights (+0.3%), foreign cars, cigarettes and T-shirts (+0.2%). Chipboards (-0.9%), edged boards (-0.5%), electric vacuum cleaners (-0.4%) and TVs (-0.3%) fell in price. Diesel fell by 0.2%, gasoline prices did not change.

Among the drugs observed by Rosstat, the price of nimesulide, rengalin and ergoferon rose by 0.6%, corvalol by 0.4%, and allochol, validol and multivitamins by 0.3%. Travel by trolleybus on average across the country has risen in price by 1.3%, by tram – by 0.9%, and by bus – by 0.8%. Airfare increased by 0.6%.

At the end of 2022, inflation in Russia amounted to 11.94% after 8.39% in 2021. This year, the Ministry of Economic Development expects inflation at 5.5%. According to the forecast of the Central Bank, it will be 5-7%. In December 2022, inflation in monthly terms amounted to 0.78% (the relatively high rate was affected by the transfer of indexation of housing and communal services tariffs from summer 2023 to 2022) after 0.37% in November, 0.18% in October and 0 .05% in September. In the summer, Rosstat recorded deflation for three months.

How wrote earlier than Vedomosti, the stagnation of demand became one of the key economic problems in late 2022 – early 2023. Last week, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov made a report on this issue at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The key task for 2023 was the restoration of demand, the main indicator of which in the current situation is inflation.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its January review improved the forecast for the Russian economy in 2023 – from a decline of 2.3%, expected in October, to growth of 0.3%. This assessment turned out to be much more optimistic than the official forecasts of the Russian authorities. According to the expectations of the Ministry of Economic Development, by the end of 2023, the economy will decline by 0.8%. The Bank of Russia forecasts a decline in the range of 1-4%. At the same time, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov admitted GDP growth at the end of the year.