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Potatoes, fresh and canned vegetables, citrus fruit and other Mediterranean fruit are the food items that saw the steepest price increase in September compared to August, as well as to the end of 2017; gas and electricity tariffs, postal and airline services also grew more expensive, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) said on Wednesday.
The price of potatoes this September was 19.16 pct up from the month before, and 22.41 percent higher compared to December 2017, while fresh and canned vegetables were 6.48 pct, and respectively 13.77 pct more expensive. Citrus and other Mediterranean fruit grew by 3.97 percent more expensive compared to the month before, and were 14.29 pct pricier as to the end of 2017.
In the non-foods category, the most significant price increases were for natural gas (+16.61 percent), fuels (+6.76 percent), tobacco and cigarettes (+5.56 pct). There were only minor monthly price rises in this category, of less than 1 percent for almost all products, except for fuel prices that advanced 1.08 pct.
This year's inflation peak was in May, when the annual rate hit 5.41 pct, a high since February 2013, when the rise in consumer prices was 5.65 pct.
The nine-month average monthly inflation rate this year was 0.3 pct as to 0.1 pct in the same period of 2017.
For the 7th straight month Romania posted in August the highest annual inflation rate in the EU - 4.7 pct, after 4.3 pct in July, shows data released by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).
