June inflation: prices for food products down, transport, housing up

Prices of certain food products and non-alcoholic beverages decreased month-on-month in Georgia in June, while prices of transport, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased, the latest inflation data published by the National Statistics Office of Georgia on Monday shows, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.

Prices for food products decreased by 3.2 percent, with numbers for the specific products as follows:

• Vegetables (-19.1%)
• Oils and fats (-4.9%)
• Bread and cereals (-2.7%)
• Milk, cheese and eggs (-1.6%)
• Meat (-0.6%)

At the same time, prices increased for fish by 3.3 percent.

Last month transport prices increased by 1.5 percent while prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels posted a 0.8 percent increase, Geostat said.

Overall, the consumer price index in June decreased by 0.7 percent compared to the previous month, while the annual inflation rate amounted to 0.6 percent.

The annual inflation rate was mainly influenced by price changes for miscellaneous goods and services (+17.7 percent), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+7.4 percent), transport (-11.6 percent) and health (-6.9 percent).

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development named reasons leading to the recent reduction of the inflation rate in Georgia in its latest report published in May, saying “foreign capital inflows covered the trade deficit, while domestic currency appreciation with timely monetary policy tightening from the central bank contributed to a steady reduction of inflation to 5.3 percent in March 2023”.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili last week told the country’s Parliament inflation was expected to further decline in the country.