MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s consumer inflation rate reached 6.6 percent by the end of 2012, the Federal State Statistics Service said in its report, adding that the indicator gained 0.5 percent in December. As compared to the preceding year, the December inflation amounted to 0.4 percent, while the index was at 6.1 percent over the year as a whole. It was the lowest level over several past years.
In the year of 2012, the State Statistics Service registered the highest growth of consumer prices for foods (exclusive fruit and vegetables), adding that the growth made up six percent. Under the report, Russia’s food prices as a whole went up by 4.4 percent, non-food prices increased by 5.6 percent and the cost of services grew by 5.4 percent.
Touching upon food prices (exclusive alcohol), the Russian Statistics Service stated that the biggest growth of prices was registered for meat and poultry (8.3 percent), adding that the prices for bread and eggs increased by 6.2 percent and 6.1 percent on average over the year.
Besides, the country’s average prices of macaroni edged up by 1.7 percent in 2012, prices of fish and seafood grew by 4.8 percent, prices of milk and dairy products went up by 4.2 percent and prices of butter increased by 3.4 percent, the statistics’ report underlined.
Simultaneously, the prices of cereals and bean products dropped by 22.7 percent, the prices of sunflower oil slid down by 0.4 percent, the prices of granulated sugar decreased by 13.8 percent and the prices of fruit and vegetables went down by 11.6 percent, the Statistics Service wrote in its document, adding that the cost of alcohol in Russia increased by 10.1 percent over the year under review.
In the group of non-food, the biggest growth was registered for tobacco goods, which made up 21.2 percent, the document underlined, adding that prices of audio-video goods slid down by 0.5 percent.
In addition, the country’s gasoline prices went up by 7.6 percent over the previous year, the prices of cleaning plants grew by 9.2 percent and the prices of drugs and medicines increased by 6.6 percent, the Russian State Statistics Service said.
Touching upon the groups of services, the statistics registered the highest growth of prices for the culture services (9.5 percent) and medical services (9.1 percent). Tariffs of the housing and public utilities services went up by 4.8 percent. Cost of passenger tickets grew by 6.1 percent. The charges for communication services increased by 1.8 percent in 2012, the statistics report wrote. The cost of education in Russia rose by 7.8 percent and the cost of ensurance went up by 2.6 percent, the Russian State Statistics Service underlined in its report.