August inflation up by 0.8% in Georgia

Georgia’s national statistics office (Geostat) reports that last month the Consumer Price Index increased by 0.8 percent compared to July, while the annual inflation rate amounted to 4.9%.

The agency says that the monthly prices in the group of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 1.5% in August contributing 0.48 percentage points to the overall monthly inflation rate.

In the same period, the inflation rate without tobacco amounted to 0.8 percent over the previous month, while the prices increased by 4.2 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. About the annual core inflation, the prices increased by 3.8 percent, while the annual core inflation without tobacco amounted to 2.4 %.

As for transport, the prices went up by 0.6 percent, contributing 0.07 percentage points to the overall monthly inflation rate. The prices in the group increased for purchase of vehicles by 2.0 percent and operation of personal transport equipment by 0.9 %. However, the prices were 0.5% lower for transport services.

The prices in restaurants and hotels increased by 3.6% while prices for the miscellaneous goods and services increased by 4.3%.

In addition to this, the annual inflation rate was mainly affected by price changes for the following groups:
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages- the prices within the group increased by 8.0 percent, contributing 2.38 percentage points to the overall annual inflation rate.
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco-the prices increased by 13.8 percent, with a relevant contribution of 0.92 percentage points to the overall annual CPI growth.
- Transport-the prices increased by 4.4 percent, which resulted in a 0.53 percentage point contribution to the overall annual inflation rate.
- Recreation and culture- the prices went up by 6.2 percent, contributing 0.36 percentage points to the overall annual inflation rate.
- Health-the prices went up by 3.9 percent, contributing 0.32 percentage points to the overall annual inflation rate.

In July, the Consumer Price Index decreased by 0.02 percent compared to the previous month, while the annual inflation rate amounted to 4.6 %.

Moreover, June 2019 the Consumer Price Index decreased by 1.0 percent compared to the previous month and the annual inflation rate amounted to 4.3 percent while in May 2019 the CPI increased by 0.5 percent compared to April and the annual inflation rate amounted to 4.7%.

The highest annual inflation rate over the past two years was measured at 7.1%, in June 2017, according to the GeoStat data.