September Inflation at 2.7%: Prices Flat Month-on-Month, but Food Got Pricier for the Second Month Running

Annual inflation in September stood at 2.7 percent, the State Statistical Office announced. Compared with August, overall living costs were unchanged. At first glance - a calm month. Beneath the average, though, prices were moving in opposite directions, and food is once again on the side that's getting more expensive.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 0.5 percent in September compared with August. The same monthly rise was recorded in August. For households that leave most of their wages at the supermarket, that is the number they actually feel - not the average.

Transport cheaper, household goods pricier

A zero at the monthly level is the sum of pluses and minuses. The biggest monthly drops were in recreation, sport and culture, down 3.7 percent, and transport, down 3.4 percent. The biggest rise was in furnishings, household equipment and maintenance, up 1.3 percent, while personal care (0.5), education (0.4), clothing and footwear (0.3) and housing, water, electricity and fuels (0.2 percent) also went up.

On an annual basis the picture is sharper: alcoholic drinks and tobacco are up 6.5 percent on last year, recreation and culture 6.3, and restaurants and hotels 5.8 percent.

The trend is gently upward

After 2.3 percent in July and 2.6 in August, September brought 2.7. Inflation is below 3 percent, but it has been edging up two months in a row.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, for his part, is pleased. "I expect us to be a country with, if not the lowest, then among the lowest two or three inflation rates in the region and in Europe," he said, noting that according to an estimate published in the EU, eurozone inflation in September was 3.8 percent. According to State Market Inspectorate estimates he cited, annual food inflation should be between 1.5 and 2 percent.

The comparison with Europe is comforting on paper. But a pensioner in Kumanovo doesn't buy bread at the eurozone average. If food is getting more expensive for the second month running, when will that number make it into the speeches?