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The increase in prices has slowed down significantly this year. INSTAT announced that inflation, which measures the change in prices for a certain basket of consumer goods, fell to 2.1% in April, from 2.3% in the previous month and 4.6% in the same period a year ago.
This is the lowest level of inflation since May 2021, when the domestic and global economy was recovering from the pandemic.
Then, prices started to rise, as a result of the problems that were caused in the supply chain by the pandemic. In 2022, inflation accelerated further as a result of the consequences of Russia's attacks on Ukraine on global energy and food markets.
In October 2022, inflation in the country reached 8.3%, the highest level since 1998, when the country suffered the consequences of pyramid schemes. In 2023, price growth eased to slow down significantly in the first half of 2024, helped by the drop in inflation in Europe, which is also our main trading partner.
In an effort to fight inflation, the Bank of Albania, whose main objective is to maintain price stability, tightened monetary policy, increasing the base rate from 0.5% in March 2022 to 3.25% currently. Inflation has already fallen below the targeted objective of 3% of the Bank of Albania, but the latter has not yet started the easing monetary policy.
Foods are the group that has the highest impact on price increases.
According to INSTAT, the annual increase in prices in the month of April was mainly influenced by the group "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" with +0.52 percentage points, followed by the group "Rent, water, fuel and energy" with +0.44 percentage points. Also, the prices of the group "Furniture, household appliances and home maintenance" were affected by +0.26 percentage points, the prices of the group "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" by +0.16 percentage points, the prices of the groups "Hotels, cafes and restaurants" ” and “Miscellaneous goods and services” with +0.15 percentage points each, the prices of the “Clothing and shoes” group with +0.12 percentage points, the prices of the “Entertainment and culture” group with +0.10 percentage points, the prices of the group "Health" by +0.07 percentage points, the prices of the groups "Transport" and "Educational service" by 0.06 percentage points each.
Annual changes of the main groups: Compared to the month of April 2023, the biggest increase in prices is observed in the group "Entertainment and culture" with 4.4%, followed by the groups "Furniture, home appliances and home maintenance" with 3.5%, "Clothing and shoes" with 3.4%, "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" with 3.3%, "Hotels, cafes and restaurants" with 3.2%, "Miscellaneous goods and services" with 2.7%, " Rent, water, fuel and energy" with 2.3%, "Educational service" with 2.2%, "Health" with 1.7%, "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" with 1.5% and "Transport" with 1.0%. Within the food group, the prices of the subgroup "vegetables including potatoes" increased by 5.4%, followed by the subgroups "fish" by 5.2%, "sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and sweets" by 4.1%, "milk, cheese and eggs" increased by 3.6%, "meat" by 2.4%, etc.
Monthly changes of the main groups: Compared to the month of March 2024, the prices of the "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" group decreased by 0.7%. On the other hand, the prices of the group "Entertainment and culture" increased by 1.1%, followed by the groups "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" by 0.5%, "Furniture, home appliances and home maintenance", "Transport" and " Hotels, cafes and restaurants" with 0.2% each, "Clothing and shoes", "Health" and "Miscellaneous goods and services" with 0.1% each./Monitor
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