MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s inflation has increased by 6.1 percent by December 26 since the beginning of the year, the Federal State Statistics Service said in a regular report on Wednesday.
The country’s consumer prices went up by 0.1 percent in the week from December 20 to December 26, the report said, adding that the inflation has grown by 0.4 percent since the beginning of the current month.
Touching upon last year’s indicators, the Statistics Service reaffirmed that the country’s inflation had reached 8.7 percent since the beginning of the year 2010. Besides, in December, the country’s inflation went up to 1.1 percent, the statistics service said.
At the same time, in the week from December 20 to December 26, 2011, the Statistics Service reported the most considerable hike of prices for eggs and lamb, which increased by 1.3 percent and 0.7 percent accordingly.
In addition, average prices of beef, pork, frozen fish, several sorts of sausages, chocolate sweets, wheat flour and salt edged up by 0.4-0.6 percent, the report said.
Simultaneously, in the period under review, the Statistics Service reported the continuing decline of average prices for buckwheat (by 1.5 percent), millet (1.0 percent), granulated sugar (0.1 percent) and rice (0.1 percent).
In the designated period of 2011, average prices of fruit and vegetables went up by 0.7 percent, the service said, adding that prices for cabbages grew by 1.3 percent and prices of potatoes went up by 0.9 percent.
In the period from December 20 to December 26, average prices of gasoline decreased by 0.1 percent, while prices of diesel fuel grew by 0.4 percent, the Statistics Service said in its report.
Other prices and tariffs, which the Statistics Service monitors every week, remained unchanged in the period under review.
The report was drafted on the basis of weekly monitoring of retail prices for 62 socially important goods and services, which the Federal State Statistics Service carried out in 271 Russian cities and towns.
At the beginning of December, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Klepach projected that this year’s inflation will be between 6.2 percent and 6.5 percent, but close to the “lower indicator.” In his words, the ministry expects that the country’s consumer prices will go up by 0.6 percent in December.
On Tuesday, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Alexei Ulyukayev said that put forth more optimistic forecast. In his words, upon results of the current year, the level of Russia’s accumulated consumer price inflation will be between 6.2 percent and 6.3 percent. “The statistics of the current year are at the good level,” Ulyukayev said in an interview to the Russia 24 TV channel.
At the same time, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin projected that “the country’s inflation rate will be slightly more than six percent. And this will be the historical minimum for the modern Russia.”
According to earlier official forecasts, this year’s inflation was projected at the level of 6.5 percent to 7.0 percent. Initially, this year’s inflation was projected at seven to eight percent.
The Economic Development Ministry recently revised its 2011 consumer price inflation forecast to 6.2-6.5 percent from 6.5-6.7 percent. President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday he expected consumer prices in Russia to grow slightly over 6.0 percent in 2011.
In 2010, the country’s inflation rate increased by 8.8 percent in 2010.