By Gajtis Bejleri
TIRANA, July 9 – INSTAT released the latest report on the Consumer Prices Index in Albania on Tuesday. According to INSTAT, the CPI finished at 100.2 percent last month as opposed to December 2007, with a 0.8 percent decrease compared to May.
Therefore, the yearly inflation rate, as of June, reached 4.0 percent, with a 0.2 percent decrease since May, hitting the upper limit set by the Government and the Central Bank. However, inflation in June was still much higher compared to last year, when the same month it was only recorded at 2.0 percent.
The major impact in the drop of inflation in June came from the product group of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which were 2.6 percent cheaper than the previous month, resulting in a one percent drop in the total monthly change.
Most notably, the subgroup of vegetables and potatoes had the largest decrease, falling in price by 17.6 percent compared to May. Another major decrease was seen in the fruits subgroup, with a decrease of 6.5 percent. In this subgroup, the selling of seasonal products was critical. Thus, prices of melons and watermelons decreased by 50 and 47 percent respectively, while peaches had a very large decrease of 47.6 percent, as well.
Other food subgroups, though, had slight increases. Bread and cereals were some 1.2 percent more expensive than in May, fish 0.3 percent more and meat 0.1 percent.
However, on the yearly scale, food and non-alcoholic beverages are still expensive, at 6.1 percent more compared to last June. Of those, bread and cereals have had the most dramatic increase in prices, being 27.4 percent more expensive than 12 months ago.
Meanwhile, clothing and footwear saw a slight drop of 0.1 percent since May, while rent, water, maintenance and power has dropped by 0.4 percent on the monthly scale.
What really seems to trouble the inflation rate, not only in Albania but globally, as well, is the constantly increasing price of oil. In June, diesel was 6.8 percent more expensive than the previous month, with petrol following suite at 4.6 percent. The same figures were registered, also, in the comparison between May and April.
Because of the huge increase in gas prices, urban and interurban transportation increased, as well. While interurban transportation increased by only 0.3 percent compared to May, urban transportation saw a huge increase of 25.8 percent. In total, the transportation group had an increase of 4.0 percent compared to May, with an impact of 0.2 percent in total monthly changes.
