Consumer prices in Russia rose by 1.9 percent in January-March 2013, well in excess of Europe’s average inflation rate of 0.5 percent over the same period, Russia’s State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Wednesday.

Rosstat’s figures are based on data published by the European Union’s Statistical Office (Eurostat), national statistical services in the EU and data posted in the Internet in compliance with the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

Of the countries covered by Rosstat’s monitoring, first-quarter 2013 inflation was higher than in Russia in the Netherlands (2.3 percent) and Estonia (2.2 percent), and also in Belarus (5.4 percent) and Turkey (2.9 percent). The inflation rate in Brazil and Kazakhstan matched Russia’s level (1.9 percent).

Greece and Malta registered a fall in consumer prices in the first quarter of 2013 while Sweden, Spain and Italy showed the slowest consumer price growth since the start of the year (0.1 percent).

The biggest month-on-month consumer price growth in March was registered in such EU countries as Greece (2.5 percent), Italy (2.3 percent), Spain (1.9 percent) and Portugal (1.7 percent). Consumer prices in Russia rose by 0.3 percent in March 2013 compared to the previous month.


 

RIA Novosti