March 11 (SeeNews) - Moldova posted an annual consumer price inflation of 2.4% in February, up from 2.2% in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics, BNS, said on Monday.
The main inflation driver in February were food prices, which rose 3.5% year-on-year, BNS said in a statement.
Prices of non-food products rose by 2.9% on the year in February, while services depreciated by 0.2%.
Month-on-month, Moldova's consumer prices rose by 0.4% in February. Food price rose by 0.8%, while non-food prices rose 0.1%. Consumer prices in the services sector rose by 0.2% month-on-month.
Moldova’s central bank, BNM, lowered its 2019 inflation projection by 0.5 percentage points to 4.9% in February. BNM targets inflation of 5.0% plus or minus 1.5 pp.
On February 6, BNM decided to maintain its key rate at 6.5%, striving to keep inflation close to the target level.
BNM last revised its key monetary policy rate in December 2017, lowering it by 0.5% to 6.5%.
(1 euro= 19.3116 Moldovan lei)