Bulgaria annual CPI records 1.3% inflation in May
Bulgaria’s annual consumer price index (CPI) recorded 1.3 per cent inflation in May, the lowest since July 2017 and down from 1.8 per cent in April, data released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on June 15 showed.
In May, CPI shrank by 0.3 per cent on a monthly basis. It was the third straight month of decline and the fifth time that the monthly CPI figure showed deflation during the previous 12 months.
As in March and April, NSI said that the Covid-19 pandemic created some difficulties in collecting statistical data, but it affected only five per cent of the overall CPI basket, compared to 32 per cent in April and 24 per cent in March. 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 April, while non-food and services prices each fell by 0.6 per cent. Compared to May 2019, food prices were 6.2 per cent higher, with non-food prices falling by 3.2 per cent, while services prices rose by 0.6 per cent.
The harmonised CPI figure, calculated by NSI for comparison with European Union data, was 0.2 per cent lower on a monthly basis, while the annual harmonised CPI inflation in May was one per cent, the lowest figure since August 2017.
Food and beverage prices were six per cent up, on an annual basis, while the price of utilities and housing increased by 0.4 per cent and transportation costs were 8.6 per cent down compared to a year earlier. The three categories account for about 48.2 per cent of the harmonised CPI basket.
(Illustration: svilen001/sxc.hu)
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