PRICES FOR FOODS IN ARMENIA 10.3% UP IN JULY 2011
/ARKA/
August 2, 2011
YEREVAN
Prices for foods in Armenia went 10.3% up in July 2011, compared
with July 2010, Gurgen Martirosyan, chief of the Armenian National
Statistical Service’s division in charge of international data
comparison, said Tuesday at a news conference.
According to official statistical reports, inflation in Armenia
was recorded at 6.3% in July 2011, compared with the same month a
year earlier.
Prices for services climbed 2.3% in July 2011, compared with the same
month a year before.
Martirosyan said bread prices climbed 16.3%. Prices for dairy products
leapt 20.5%, for eggs mounted 46.4%, vegetable oil and animal fats
jumped 21.5%, sugar went 18.8% up, tea, coffee and cacao rose 12.5%
and fruits 3.3%. Instead, vegetables and potatoes became 16.5% cheaper.
According to official statistical reports, consumer price index shed 3%
in July 2011, compared with the previous month.
Food, alcohol and tobacco prices slipped 5.4% in Jan-July 2011,
compared with the same period a year earlier.
Services became cheaper as well – 0.2% decrease. Prices for nonfoods
remained unchanged.
Martirosyan said that price hikes were recorded in eight of 13 groups
of products, price rise was seen in four groups and prices in one
group remained pegged.
Prices for vegetables and potatoes fell 34.9% and fruits 23.3%.
“Dairy products became 1.4% cheaper, egg prices slipped 1.1%, fishes 1%
and bread 0.6%,” Martirosyan said. “Prices for sugar and soft drinks
slid 0.6% in July, compared to the previous month.”
Meat prices continued their upward movement seen for several months –
they went 2.9% up in July, compared with June.
“Vegetable oil and adipose prices remained unchanged, while coffee,
tea and cacao prices rose 0.9%, and alcohol and tobacco prices went
0.2% up,” Martirosyan said.
He also said that 0.7 to 5.5% decline in consumer prices was recorded
in every July between 1994 and 2011, and 0.4 to 2.4% price fall was
recorded in every August between 1997 and 2009, while in 2010 the
country faced 1.3% increase due to a seven-percent rebound in bred
prices and certain rise in prices for fruits, vegetables and potatoes.
Martirosyan refrained from any forecast for August, but said that in
past years, prices for agricultural products went down this season.
“As a rule, fruit and vegetable prices go up in September and October
and continue their upward motion until April or May of the next year,”
he said.
National Statistical Service of Armenia says year-on-year consumer
price index was recorded at 109.4% in Jan-July 2011.
Index for foods, alcoholic drinks and cigarettes was 114%, nonfoods
103.1% and services 104.6%.