Annual inflation rate at 0.6% in September

In the month under review, the annual rate of inflation stood at 0.6 per cent. A year earlier, the same rate was registered.

The largest upward impacts on annual inflation were brought about by the Restaurants and Hotels Index (0.6 percentage points), the Clothing and Footwear Index (0.2 percentage points) and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Index (0.2 percentage points). This was mainly due to costlier restaurant services, garments and cigarettes respectively.

The main downward impacts were recorded in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels Index (-0.7 percentage points), Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages (-0.1 percentage points) and the Communication Index (-0.1 percentage points). This was mainly due to lower electricity rates, cheaper prices of fruit and reduced prices of mobile phones respectively.

The twelve-month moving average rate was 0.8 per cent.