September 10, 2015

In August, consumer prices rose 0.32% over the previous month, which followed the 0.24% increase observed in July. According to the Central Bank, the increase mainly reflected higher prices for transportation and housing.



Inflation inched down from 0.5% in July to 0.4% in August, thus reaching a three-month low. Moreover, annual average inflation edged down from 1.4% in July to 1.2% in August and now sits at its lowest rate on record. As a result, headline inflation remains well below the lower bound of the Central Bank’s tolerance margin of plus/minus 1.0 percentage point around its 4.0% target rate.



At its meeting on 31 August, the Central Bank decided to maintain its monetary policy rate at 5.00%, taking into consideration the inflation outlook as well as the current state of the economy.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants expect inflation to end the year at 2.6%, which is unchanged over last month’s projection. Panelists project inflation of 3.7% in 2016.