Serbia's annual rate of consumer prices inflation fell last month to a 50-year low of 1.3 percent, the central bank said on Friday, potentially heralding an August cut in interest rates. The bank, which on Thursday opted against a third cut in its benchmark interest rate in as many months, said it expected annual inflation to bounce back to within its target band of 4 percent plus or minus 1.5 percentage points over the coming months.
Annual inflation had stood at 2.1 percent in May, but there was a mere 0.1 percent rise from May to June, mainly because of a drop in prices of some agricultural products, food and beverages. The state statistics office said that prices of household goods fell by 1 percent, with prices of beverages, tobacco and health services also slightly down. "We have stagnation, or a drop in both demand and purchasing power, and that led to very low inflation or deflation in some sectors," said Miladin Kovacevic, deputy director of the statistics office.
Comments
Comments are closed.