According to Russia’s statistical agency, consumer prices growth eased to 1.2% in March from 2.2% in February. The annual rate of growth was 16.9%. Prices on consumer goods and services rose 7.4% from January until March compared to 2.3% in the same period of 2014. Headline inflation logged over 1.8% in eight regions of the Russian Federation. Headline inflation showed 7.9% year-to-date and 1.5% in March in Moscow. The same indicators were 8.4% and 1.0% in Saint Petersburg respectively.
The statistics agency recorded utmost growth in prices of fish and sea food. Frozen gutted fish except for salmon-like species gained 4.2%, non-gutted fish rose 4.1%, fish fillet added 3.7%, tinned fish in oil grew 3.6%, and salty herring went up 3.4%.
As for cereals, price tags show modest growth, for example peas and beans rose 3.4%, rice went up 3.2%, semolina grew 2.9%, and millet edged up 2.2%.
Speaking about fruit and vegetables, garlic inflated 21.5%, bananas jumped 6.6%, oranges rose 3.7% followed by cabbage, beet, carrots, and grapes with 1.8-2.8% growth in prices, dried fruit, frozen vegetables, and nuts went up 5.2-5.7%.
A number of food items gained 3.0-4.4% such as margarine, condensed milk with sugar, tinned meat, tinned vegetables and fruit, jam, coffee, tea, dry soups, cereal flakes, grape wine, ketchup, mayonnaise, and some kinds of confectionery. Olive oil surged 5.9% and black pepper jumped 6.5%.
On the other hand, some food items became cheaper such as poultry and pork which lost 0.5% and 0.3% respectively. Fresh cucumbers went down 2.3%, tomatoes dropped 7.2%, onions fell 0.5%, and apples and pears edged down 0.4%.
