OREANDA-NEWS. Inflation in Russia from March 26 to April 1, 2019 was zero, the Rosstat reported on Wednesday. The previous nine weeks, prices added by 0.1% per week. The last time weekly inflation was zero at the end of September 2018.

Since the beginning of the year, prices by April 1 rose by 1.8%. The average daily price increase for April 1 was 0.01%.

From Rosstat data it follows that inflation in annual terms as of April 1 was 5.3%, remaining at the level of the previous week, but increased slightly from the end of February (5.22% without rounding to tenths) against the background of the low base last year. Rosstat will publish final inflation data for March only on Friday both on a monthly and annual basis.
Over the past week, prices for lamb increased by 3.7%, millet - by 2.0%, wheat flour and pasta - by 0.5%, bread, vermicelli, salt and tea - by 0.4%, buckwheat - by 0.3%.

At the same time, prices for chicken meat decreased by 0.5%, pork and chicken eggs - by 0.4%.

Growth in prices for fruits and vegetables over the week was 0.3%, including cabbage - 6.7%, tomatoes - 3.2%, carrots - 2.4%, onions - 2.1%. At the same time, cucumbers became cheaper by 5.4%, apples - by 0.2%.

Prices for motor gasoline for the week did not change, for diesel - decreased by 0.3%.

As reported, the Ministry of Economic Development expects that annual inflation will stabilize at around 5.4% in March-May and at the end of the year, with a stable ruble exchange rate, it will fall to 4.3%.

Head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina at a press conference on March 22 following the results of the board of directors, at which the regulator left the key rate unchanged at 7.75%, also said that at the peak annual inflation in spring will be about 5.5% (initially the Central Bank expected a peak in the range of 5.5-6%).

At the same time, the Central Bank lowered its inflation forecast for 2019 to 4.7-5.2% from 5-5.5%.