January 13 (SeeNews) - Romania's consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.9% on the year in December, following a 1.1% annual drop in November, the country's statistics office, INS, said on Wednesday.
On a month-to-month basis, CPI edged up by 0.11% in December, INS said in a statement.
Romania's EU-harmonised CPI fell by 0.7% year-on-year in December.
Average monthly inflation switched to a negative 0.1% through December.
Romania's December CPI (pct change):
|
m/m |
y/y |
Total |
+0.11 |
-0.93 |
Food |
+0.24 |
-6.2 |
Non-food |
-0.11 |
+1.95 |
Services |
+0.40 |
+2.41 |
"End-2015 inflation printed at 0.9% year on year was below our estimate of 0.7% and market consensus of 0.8%", ING Bank Romania analysts said on Wednesday in a daily commentary on the financial markets.
"For us, the surprise came mainly from a drop in non-food prices, as we had expected prices to tick up ahead of the VAT cut starting this year," they added.
For their part, Erste bank analysts commented that the annual fall in prices cooling further to -0.9% in December is not as much as they or the market anticipated. "Monthly inflation rose only 0.1%, driven mainly by food and services. Prices could linger on in negative territory until May, only to resume growth afterwards to 1% in late 2016", they concluded.
Raiffeisen bank analysts commented that in line with their expectations, consumer prices in December were positively influenced by the depreciation of the Romanian leu and negatively impacted by the decrease of oil prices.