Annual Inflation on the Rise in Romania

Romania’s annual Inflation in February 2022 rose to 8.53%, according to the National Institute of Statistics on Inflation and the evolution of consumer prices in Romania.

As statistics show on March 14 by the National Institute of Statistics, Romania’s annual inflation jumped to 8.53% in February 2022, up from 8.35% in January, with prices for non-food items rising 9.3%, foods rising 8.84 %, and services rising 6.08% (INS).

In February 2022, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (an instrument for measuring consumer price inflation in the EU) is 101.04% higher than in January 2022. The yearly inflation rate versus the HICP in February 2022 is 7.9%. Consumer prices increased by 5.0% in the recent 12 months (March 2021-February 2022) compared to the previous 12 months (March 2020-February 2021).

According to the National Bank of Romania’s (NBR) Quarterly Inflation Report shows, inflation is expected to reach 11.2% at the end of Q2 2022, 10.2% at the end of Q3 2022 and 9.6% at the end of Q4 2022. This comes after, in January, NBR has modified the monetary policy rate from 1.75% to 2% due to the galloping inflation in Romania.

It seems that the inflation in 2022 in Romania surpassed predictions faster than specialists thought. In 2021, Romania was facing steep inflation of close to 5%, and it seemed like an excellent rate when looking at it now. The situation worsened this year due to the conflict at the Romanian border that caused an increase in gas and energy prices and the pandemic effects over world economies.

It’s a fact that Romania is spending more than it produces, and it is not surprising that the 2022 statistics show that the difference between exports and imports was almost 950 million euros higher in January 2022 than in January 2021.

Nonetheless, with the total liberalization of gas and energy prices in April, Romania will confront even greater inflationary pressures when the government no longer provides subsidies.