The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) attributes a higher inflation rate in April from March to the cancellation of gas price discounts for Ukrainian households, the regulator reported on its website.
The discount expired on March 31.
The NBU reports that the price of natural gas increased by 48.4% last month, which contributed most to April`s inflation rate. The inflation rate in April was also predetermined by an increase in prices of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and fuel, which was generally in line with NBU expectations. At the same time, the regulator notes the inflation growth has been curbed by an expected decrease in food prices.
The NBU stressed its inflation target of 12% (+/- 3 percentage points) by the end of 2016 remained achievable. At the same time, the NBU expects a greater impact of the administratively controlled component of inflation due to the higher gas price and a recently announced increase in heating and hot water rates. At the same time, the NBU projects this impact can be mitigated by the longer than expected effect of supply factors.
The regulator stressed that bringing prices to economically feasible levels would facilitate the achievement of an inflation target of 8% (+/- 2 percentage points) by the NBU in 2017.
As UNIAN reported, inflation in Ukraine in April 2016 to March 2016 sped to 3.5% compared with 1% in March to February. In annual terms, inflation in April 2016 slowed to 9.8% year-over-year from 20.9% recorded in the previous month.
In January-April 2106, consumer prices grew by 5.1%.
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