Annual inflation rate up in February to record level of 4.72 pct

Annual inflation rate, measuring the evolution of consumption prices in the last year, climbed to 4.72 percent in February, a record level since 2013, when it was 5.37 percent, taking into account that the citrus became more expensive by 5.98 percent compared with January, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

In January, the annual inflation rate climbed to 4.32 percent, a growth compared with December, when it was 3.32 percent and compared with November, when it was 3.23 percent.

In February, the merchandise became more expensive by 3.74 percent in average compared with February 2017, the non-food prices climbed by 6.27 percent and the services prices increased by 2.92 percent.

The highest prices increases were registered in February, compared with January, in citrus (5.98 percent), fresh fruits (3.54 percent) and other vegetables and vegetable cans (2,17 percent).

The fuel prices, which has a high impact over the other prices dropped in the last month by 0.31 percent.

In the last forecast published in February by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) revised upwards the forecast for the inflation of for the end of this year from 3.2 percent to 3.5 percent.