December 2020: CPI index down 1%, annual inflation amounts to 2.4%

The Consumer Price Index, a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food, and medical care, decreased by 1 per cent in December 2020 compared to the previous month, while the annual inflation rate amounted to 2.4 percent, show data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia.

With regard to the annual core inflation (calculated by excluding the following groups of goods and services from the consumer basket: food and non-alcoholic beverages, energy, regulated tariffs, transport) prices increased by 5.3 percent, while the annual core inflation without tobacco amounted to 4.9 percent.

The monthly inflation rate was mainly influenced by price changes for the following groups:

Monthly prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels decreased 22.0 per cent, which contributed -1.89 percentage points to the monthly inflation rate.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 2.1 per cent, contributing 0.69 percentage points to the overall monthly inflation rate.

Prices were higher for the following subgroups:

• Vegetables - 6.5%
• Milk, cheese and eggs - 4.2%
• fruit and grapes - 3.8%
• oils and fats - 3.5%
• fish - 1.9 percent

The price of transport increased by 2.4 per cent, contributing 0.26 percentage points to the overall monthly inflation rate. Within the group,  prices increased for operation of personal transport equipment (4.1 percent). Along with this, the prices decreased for purchase of vehicles (-1.3 percent).

As for the annual price changes of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the prices in the group increased by 6.8 per cent. 

Within the group the prices increased for the following subgroups: 

• oils and fats - 27.2%
• coffee, tea and cocoa -13.4%
• milk, cheese and eggs - 11.3%
• fish - 8.8%
• sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery - 8%
•  bread and cereals - 7%
• mineral waters, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices - 4.5%
•  vegetables - 3.3%
• meat - 1.7 %

Along with this, the prices decreased for fruit and grapes (-4.5%).