Bulgaria annual CPI records 3% inflation in March
Bulgaria’s annual consumer price index (CPI) recorded three per cent inflation in March, down from 3.7 per cent in February, data released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on April 15 showed.
During March, CPI shrank by 0.6 per cent on a monthly basis. It was only the third time that the monthly CPI figure showed deflation during the previous 12 months.
NSI said that the Covid-19 pandemic created some difficulties in collecting statistical data, with 24 per cent of the overall CPI basket affected. The institute said that it followed the EU statistics body Eurostat’s recommendations to calculate estimates for the missing data.
Food prices were 0.1 per cent higher compared to February, while non-food and services prices both fell by 1.1 per cent. Compared to March 2019, food prices were 6.5 per cent higher, with non-food prices falling by 0.1 per cent, while services prices rose by 2.1 per cent.
The harmonised CPI figure, calculated by NSI for comparison with European Union data, was 0.5 per cent lower on a monthly basis, while the annual harmonised CPI inflation in March was 2.4 per cent.
Food and beverage prices were 6.6 per cent up, on an annual basis, while the price of utilities and housing increased by 2.2 per cent and transportation costs were 0.9 per cent down compared to a year earlier. The three categories account for about 48.2 per cent of the harmonised CPI basket.
(Image: svilen001/sxc.hu)
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