Inflation rate rises to 3.5%

TIRANA, September 13 – Albania’s Consumer price index accelerated for a second straight month in August, the Institute of Statistics said last weekend.
The annual inflation edged up to 3.5 percent in August from 3.4 percent in July. A year earlier, inflation was at 2.2 percent. Compared to the previous month, the consumer price index rose 0.8 percent.
Year-on-year, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 1.7 percent in August and prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, there was a 0.5 percent decline in prices of clothing and footwear. Transport costs, however, remained flat.
The price index for medical care increased 1.9 percent from the same month last year, while the index for rent, water, fuel and power rose 0.5 percent. Drinking water prices within this group rose by 1.5 percent.
The biggest increases in the food category was registered in the ‘bread and grains” whose prices increased by 3 percent year-on-year, “cooking oil and fat” by 3.3 percent, “milk, cheese and eggs” by 1.7 percent.
The 3.5 percent rate continues keeping the inflation rate within the central bank’s 3 percent target, plus/minus 1 percent, registering one of the lowest rates during the first half of this year.
Last February, the inflation rate registered a record 4.4 percent, exceeding the bank’s target by 0.4 percent mainly because of higher food and electricity prices.
According to the International Monetary Fund, administrative price increases may drive headline inflation temporarily above the 3ѱ percent target band in the near term.