Annual inflation rate at 4.95 pc in 2012, below BNR target

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Potatoes, beans and eggs had highest price hikes in 2012.

The annual inflation rate stood at 4.95 per cent in December 2012 compared to December 2011, falling outside the interval BNR aimed for, after consumer prices grew by 0.6 per cent month-on-month in December as a consequence of a hike in the prices of food and non-food products and of a slight drop in the prices of services. So that the average annual rate (January-December 2012 compared to the same period the year before) stood at 3.33 per cent, the National Statistics Institute (INS) data shows. Potatoes, beans and eggs registered the highest year-on-year price hikes last year – 32.41 per cent, 24.72 per cent and 22.12 per cent respectively, while the prices of vegetables and canned vegetables grew by 20.02 per cent, the INS data shows. In December 2012 the prices of potatoes registered a 6.53 per cent year-on-year hike, of vegetables and canned vegetables a hike of 5.35 per cent, of eggs a hike of 4.85 per cent, while the prices of citrus fruits and other Mediterranean fruits registered drops of 5 per cent, and the prices of fruits and canned fruits drops of 2.11 per cent. Statistical data shows that in 2012 the prices of fruits grew by 14.33 per cent, those of edible oil by 12.98 per cent, of maize flour by 9.71 per cent, of pork by 5.91 per cent and of poultry meat by 5.74 per cent. In what concerns the prices of non-food products, which grew by 4.48 per cent last year, the biggest hikes were registered in the case of electricity (+13.02 per cent), tobacco and cigarettes (+5.80 per cent), natural gas (+5.23 per cent) and of fuels (+5.14 per cent). In December 2012 the price of electricity grew by 7.25 per cent, while the prices of auto vehicles and spare parts, heating and fuels dropped by 0.29, 0.20 and 0.03 per cent respectively.The tariffs of services registered an overall year-on-year hike of 3.61 per cent in 2012. The tariffs of water, sewerage and sanitation services registered the highest hike (+6.80 per cent), those of phone services grew by 3.69 per cent, those of air transportation grew by 3.68 per cent and those of auto transportation by 3.63 per cent. In December 2012 the tariffs of phone and air transportation services dropped by 0.87 per cent, while rents dropped by 0.15 per cent. We remind our readers that the National Bank of Romania (BNR) aimed for an inflation rate interval of 2-4 per cent last year and seeks to fall within an interval of 1.5 – 3.5 per cent next year. In November the Central Bank revised upward by 1.9 per cent its inflation rate estimate for this year, from 3.2 per cent to 5.1 per cent, one percentage point above the upper limit of the interval it aims for, while at the same time hiking its forecast for 2013 from 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent. The inflation rate grew in September, the annual rate reaching 5.33 per cent, up from 3.88 per cent in August. In 2011 the inflation rate stood at 5.79 per cent and in 2010 at 6.09 per cent.

Average net salary up by 5.6 per cent in November 2012

Another INS report shows that the average net nominal salary stood at RON 1,575 in November 2012, up by 5.6 per cent year-on-year, the highest salaries being registered in the air transportation sector and the lowest in the hospitality and restaurants sector. According to the aforementioned source, in November 2012 the average net nominal salary grew by 5.6 per cent year-on-year, up from RON 1,491. Compared to the same period last year, the real salary earning index stood at 101 per cent. The average gross nominal salary stood at RON 2,173 in November 2012, up by 1.6 per cent month-on-month. The real salary index for November 2012, compared to the previous month and calculated as a ratio between the net nominal salary index and the consumer price index, stood at 101.5 per cent..