December 2017 Inflation Rate Amounts to 0.8% in Georgia

In December 2017, the monthly inflation rate in Georgia amounted to 0.8%. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the Consumer Price Index change (CPI - annual inflation rate) posted a 6.7% increase.

The data was presented by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), which says that the monthly inflation rate was mainly influenced by price changes for food and non-alcoholic beverages. In December, prices for said items increased 1.4 % and contributed 0.42 percentage points to the overall CPI change.

Geostat says that prices were comparably higher for the following subgroups: vegetables (5.3 %), milk, cheese and eggs (1.3%), fruit and grapes (4.2%), fish (1.9%), meat (1.0%).

The prices in transport increased by 1.5 %, contributing 0.2 percentage points to the overall CPI change.

Prices were up for the following subgroups as well: medical products, appliances and equipment (5.0%) and hospital services (1.4%).

Annual inflation was mainly influenced by price changes for the following groups:

Food and non-alcoholic beverages - prices increased 7.3%, contributing 2.2 percentage points to the annual inflation.

Transport - prices in the group increased 14.9%, contributing 1.94 percentage points to the annual inflation.

Alcoholic beverages and tobacco - prices increased by 17.5%, with a relevant contribution of 1.12 percentage points to the overall index growth

Health - prices were up 8.1%, which resulted in a 6.6 percentage point contribution to the overall annual inflation.

by Thea Morrison