Officially: inflation in Sevastopol accelerated in December 2023

Key inflation indicators in Sevastopol

In December, prices for food products in annual terms increased by 12.11% after 10.65% in November.

Extreme weather conditions that occurred in Crimea in late November and early December led to irregular supplies of perishable fruits and vegetables. Against this background, the rise in price of greenhouse vegetables (cucumbers and tomatoes) and many fruits (lemons, apples, bananas, grapes) has accelerated.

Livestock farmers’ costs continued to rise. Thus, due to a shortage of personnel, enterprises’ expenses on wages to employees have increased. Therefore, the rise in prices for milk and eggs has accelerated in annual terms. The price dynamics of the latter were also affected by insufficient supply: outbreaks of bird diseases were observed in some supplying regions.

The annual rise in prices for drinking cream, sour cream, cottage cheese and glazed curds accelerated under the influence of rising costs for milk processors.

Non-food products

The annual growth rate of prices for non-food products in December increased to 4.84% after 4.68% in November.

The prices of some non-food products were affected by increased consumer activity. In annual terms, the decline in prices for refrigerators, furniture, laptops and shoes slowed down, TVs became more expensive, and the rise in prices for clothing accelerated.

Services

The annual growth rate of prices for services decreased to 6.74% in December after 8.82% in November.

Unlike December 2022, tariffs for heating, water supply, sanitation, electricity, gas and municipal solid waste management have not changed in Sevastopol. This affected the decrease in the annual growth rate of prices for housing and communal services.

The annual increase in prices for foreign tourism services has slowed due to an increase in the number of routes and flights abroad in the country.

Additionally, the dynamics of the indicator were influenced by the autumn strengthening of the ruble.

The number of long-distance train routes to Crimea has increased, and therefore the increase in prices for passenger transport services in annual terms has slowed down. The methodology for monitoring prices for travel in reserved seat carriages has also changed. If in December 2023 ticket prices were fixed 28 days before train departure, then a year earlier this period was 15 days. As a result, relatively cheap train tickets departing in the second half of January were taken into account in December.

Annual inflation in the Southern Federal District remained almost unchanged in December and amounted to 7.70% after 7.72% in November 2023. Rising producer costs, reduced supply of certain food products and increased consumer activity in the automobile market had a pro-inflationary impact. And the effect of a high comparative base, associated with the exit from the calculation of indexation of tariffs for utilities and cellular communications in December 2022, neutralized it.

In December 2023, consumer price growth in Russia slowed down. Both the sustainable component of price growth and the contribution of one-time factors decreased. However, price growth rates remained elevated across a wide range of goods and services for the sixth month in a row. And indicators of sustainable price dynamics exceed 4%. This is mainly due to high demand, which also enhances the transfer of increased costs to prices. According to the forecast of the Bank of Russia, a tight monetary policy will limit the excessive expansion of domestic demand and its pro-inflationary consequences. Taking into account the current monetary policy, annual inflation will drop to 4.0–4.5% in 2024 and will be close to 4% in the future.

source: press service of the Sevastopol Branch of the Southern State Bank of Russia