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Russia’s Inflation at 11.9 Percent in 2007
The inflation was 11.9 percent in Russia in 2007, the Federal State Statistics Service reported. The prices grew 1.1 percent in December vs. 0.8 percent in December of 2006, while that year’s annual inflation was just 9 percent.
Driven up by the surge in food prices, the consumer prices stepped up by more than 1.5 percent in December in seven constituents of Russia. In Moscow, the consumer price index stood at 100.9 percent in December (110.2 percent from early 2007) and St. Petersburg had 101.2 percent (113.2 percent from early 2007).
The basic inflation was 11 percent in 2007 and 0.9 percent in December.
Russia’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry had adjusted the annual inflation outlook to 12 percent for 2007 and to between 1.1 percent and 1.3 percent for December separately.
People in the ministry attribute the acceleration to the surge in prices for essential food. The reasons were the gap between production of food and the growth in effective demand, poor competition on local markets, growth in world prices for grain and food, decline in the import deliveries of certain food, including the dairy.
On average, the cost of minimal food basket grew 22.3 percent to 1,802 rubles in Russia past year. It went up 2.7 percent on month at close of December. The worth of Moscow basket was 2,475 rubles, as the prices soared 2.1 over the month and 15.7 percent from the start of the year. St. Petersburg basket of minimal food cost 1,928 rubles (the growth of 2.7 percent and 21.3 percent respectively.
www.kommersant.com
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Photo: Yuri Martyanov