On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index declined by 0.3% in August 2012.

According to Mr. Oleksandr Petryk, Deputy Director of the General Economic Department, annual CPI inflation stood at zero, having moved out of negative territory. Therefore, there are no grounds for speaking about deflation.

The expert has explained that the decline in CPI inflation recorded in August was driven by the drop in food products prices. The prices for seasonal food products such as fruit and vegetables showed the largest decreases. Thus, the prices for fruit and vegetables have fallen by 6.7% and 7.9% respectively.

Given that the weight of fruit and vegetables in the consumer basket accounts for 8.5%, these food products made a negative contribution to the price decreases. The prices for other commodity groups moved in a narrow range. In particular, the price changes for 298 commodities out of 335 were less than 1%.

For example, prices in the categories ''house maintenance, water supply, energy, gas and other types of fuel" rose by 0.1% on the month.

Apart from that, the fuel prices were up 0.1%. As a result, the prices of transport services have remained unchanged.

The prices for other services practically remained unchanged. In particular, the price changes ranged from a decline of -0.3% recorded in the health care sphere to a rise of 0.2% in the prices for services provided by restaurants and hotels. The prices for processed commodities remained at the previous month level (clothing and footwear prices showed a decline of 0.3%).

“The moderate consumer demand and the stability of foreign exchange market have contributed to keeping the inflation rate under control at a relatively constant low value”, noted Mr. Oleksandr Petryk.

In August, the producer price index rose by 0.5%. On an annual basis, the PPI remained at the previous month level of +1.4%.