December inflation: prices on food, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, housing up in Georgia

Prices on food, alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas and other types of fuel increased in Georgia in December month-on-month while prices for transportation decreased, the latest inflation data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia shows.

Prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages marked a 0.4 percent increase, including:

• Vegetables (3 percent)
• Fish (2.1 percent)
• Milk, cheese and eggs (1.2 percent) 

At the same time, prices decreased for the subgroup of oils and fats (-2 percent) and fruit and grapes (-1.1 percent).

Prices increased by 1.2 percent for alcoholic beverages and tobacco, said Geostat, adding prices for tobacco alone had increased by 2.2 percent.

Prices for the group involving housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 0.8 percent. The prices were higher for actual rentals for housing (2.1 percent).

Geostat also said transportation prices had decreased by 2.7 percent, including a decrease for services (-2.9 percent), operation of personal transport (-2.8 percent) and purchase of vehicles (-1.5 percent).

The following table shows percentage changes in prices for the commodity groups of the consumer basket, as well as the relevant contributions to the overall annual inflation rate in December.

Image: Geostat

Overall, in December the consumer price index decreased by 0.3 percent compared to the previous month, while the annual inflation rate amounted to 9.8 percent.

"With regards to the annual core inflation, prices increased by 6.9 percent, while the annual core inflation without tobacco amounted to 6.8 percent", Geostat said.

As for annual inflation, prices increased in the group of food and non-alcoholic beverages (+16.8 percent), housing, water, electricity, gas and other types of fuel (+15.8 percent), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+9.3 percent) and transport (+5.5 percent).