Page 70 - RusRPTApr23

4.2 Inflation
In the week to February 27, there was deflation in Russia - minus 0.02% after rising prices by 0.06% by February 20 and by 0.18% by February 13. In annual terms, this corresponds to 11%, according to Rosstat.
Deflation is completely atypical for the end of winter and has not been recorded in February for at least 10 years. But it was caused by one-time factors, the most noticeable of which were the fall in prices for fruits and vegetables (by 0.8%, including cucumbers - by 7.6%) and for air travel in the lowest season - by 3.7%.
The anticipatory rise in the price of cucumbers by almost 20% at the beginning of the year (about which economic channels wrote not without pleasure) was anomalous and was explained by two factors. First, since January, the cost of electricity has been indexed by 9%, which, with a short daylight hours, is half the cost. Secondly, several large producers experienced "agronomic failures" superimposed on the seasonal minimum. In March, the purchase price for cucumbers, as a rule, falls by half. The impact of this vegetable on inflation in the reporting week (minus 0.04% according to RBC estimates) is due to its high share (0.6%) in the consumer basket.
70 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com