More expensive before gas price increase
Before the gas price increase on April 1, prices already went up by 8.8 percent in March compared to the same period in March last year. In February, prices had gone up by 0.8 percent, according to information provided by the Armenian National Statistical Service.
According to the statistics, prices for produce have risen by 6.3%, other products have risen by 14.3% and services have increased by 10.6%. In other words, according to the information, life is 30% more expensive than it was back in 2005.
In a month, prices for produce have increased by 0.9%, mainly eggs, fruits, meat, botanical and animal oils and sugar prices have gone up by 1.2-6.1%.
There has been a1.5% inflation for meat in February 2010 and that was primarily due to the 2.1% increase of lamb, 0.1% of pork. Butter prices have also gone up by 2.4%.
Compared to the previous month, the 4.1% and 4.5% inflation for diesel and petrol respectively have had a direct impact on the 0.8% inflation in the non-produce market. Compared to March 2009, in March 2010 prices for petrol and diesel have gone up 37.6% and 28.3% respectively.
As for services, compared to February, in March 2010 there has been a 0.8% increase, which was due to the 1.2% increase in prices for public nutrition, 1.2% in medical services and 10.3% in domestic services.
Let us remind that according to the Armenian National Statistical Service, the average salary in February was 101,310 drams, while there are officially 83,600 unemployed people.
