Romania's October inflation up due to rising services, food prices

BUCHAREST, Nov. 11 (Chinese media) -- Romania's monthly inflation rate rose 1.06 percent in October largely on an increase in prices for services and food, the National Statistics Institute announced Tuesday.

The inflation rate advanced from October 2007 to October 2008 to 7.39 percent.

Compared to September 2008, service costs climbed 2.2 percent, food stuff prices advanced 1.1 percent and non-food prices inched up 0.5 percent.

Compared with October 2007, service costs climbed 7.92 percent, food products grew by 6.91 percent and non-food items rose 7.58 percent.

Among food products, egg prices jumped 9.9 percent, cheese prices rose 3.45 percent, and vegetable prices increased 3.66 percent.

In early November, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) revised its 2008 inflation projection to 6.7 percent from 6.6 percent and its estimate for 2009 to 4.5 percent from 4.2 percent.

The accumulated inflation rate over the first 10 months of this year was 5.72 percent, already exceeding the 2008 target of 3.8 percent with a margin of error of one percentage point.

For 2009, the BNR has set an inflation target of 2.5 percent to4.5 percent.

In its autumn forecasts, the European Commission amended its projection on Romania's inflation rate by 0.2 percent for 2008 to 7.8 percent, and by 0.9 percent for 2009 to 5.7 percent.