April 10 (SeeNews) - Moldova posted an annual consumer price inflation of 2.8% in March, up from 2.4% in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics, BNS, said on Wednesday.
The main inflation driver of inflation in March were food prices, which rose 3.8% year-on-year, BNS said in a statement.
Prices of non-food products rose by 3.7% on the year in March, while services edged up 0.1%.
Month-on-month, Moldova's consumer prices rose by 0.5% in March. Food price appreciated by 0.8%, while non-food prices grew 0.5%. Consumer prices in the services sector increased by 0.2% month-on-month.
Moldova’s central bank, BNM, lowered its 2019 inflation projection by 0.5 percentage points to 4.9% in February. BNM targets inflation of 5.0% plus or minus 1.5 pp.
On March 14, BNM decided to maintain its key rate at 6.5%, striving to keep inflation close to the target level. BNM last revised its key monetary policy rate in December 2017, lowering it by 0.5% to 6.5%.
(1 euro=19.6145 Moldovan lei)