MOSCOW, March 5 (Itar-Tass) —— In Moscow, the February inflation was at 0.5 percent (and 1.2 percent since the beginning of the year), the Federal State Statistics Service said in the report, adding that the inflation rate in St. Petersburg amounted to 0.2 percent in February and 0.8 percent in the first two months.
Among the food prices, the biggest growth was registered for granulated sugar (3.6 percent) in February. Herein, the indicator made up 10-12 percent in the Republics of Mari-El, North Ossetia – Alania and Adygeya, as well as in the Kurgan and Kursk regions.
Besides, the salt prices grew by 4.5 percent, the statistics said, adding that in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and the Tula region the salt prices skyrocketed by 18.1 percent and 14.4 percent accordingly.
Among the supervised sorts of fish and seafood, the biggest growth of 3.6 percent was reported in the prices for live and cooled fish, as well as 0.9 percent growth for salted herring fillet.
The Statistics Service pointed to the significant growth of prices for the biggest part of fruit and vegetables. In particular, banana prices went up by 7.5 percent, cabbage prices grew by 7.4 percent, grapes prices increased by 4.8 percent, as well as prices of carrots, red beet and potato – by 2.9 to 3.2 percent. However, the prices of oranges went down by 1.5 percent and lemon prices slid down by 0.5 percent over February.
Besides, the statistics service pointed to the decline of crop prices, including the most significant decrease of prices was reported for buckwheat and millet (4.9 percent and 4.7 percent respectively), the statistics service said.
In addition, the federal agency reported the decline of prices for the national sorts of cheese and feta cheese (1.1 percent), as well as prices of sweetened condensed milk, tinned vegetables and honey wend down by 0.1-0.2 percent over the months under review.
Moreover, the Statistics Service pointed to the considerable hike of Russia-made cigarettes (2.1-2.2 percent) in February 2012, the document wrote. At the mean time, the consumer prices of gasoline and diesel fuel slid down by 0.3 percent.
Among the supervised medical services, the speediest growth of prices was registered for several kinds of dentist services, for physical therapy and massotheraphy – by 1.5-1.7 percent, the statistics said.
Simultaneously, the cost of a ticket for a long-distance train was cut by ten percent in February, the State Statistics Service said, adding that the annual cost of a voluntary insurance of homes and some banking services, as well as Internet subscription fee and payments for wireless radio broadcasting went down by 0.1 percent over the month.