In August of this year, consumer prices increased by 0,6% for the month. Thus, from July to August 2024, inflation accelerated to 7,5% from 5,4%.
This is stated in the monitoring of the main events in the economy of Ukraine from the Ministry of Economy.
As noted in the review, the absence of summer deflation this year in general and in August in particular is caused by the coincidence of several inflationary factors:
- high pressure on producer prices due to the previous significant increase in the price of electricity, as well as the need to purchase or use alternative sources of electricity supply (currently, all pressure from all "energy" factors is prolonged over time);
- lack of a surplus of agricultural products on the market, in particular due to difficult weather conditions;
- significant shortage of personnel;
- high level of danger and uncertainty regarding the further course of hostilities.
At the same time, according to the Ministry of Economy, the anti-inflationary compensatory effect was exerted by:
- a moratorium on tariff increases for some utility services;
- the monetary policy of the NBU, which is aimed at ensuring control over the situation on the foreign exchange market, as well as the preservation of tight monetary conditions (it affected primarily the non-food market, where prices mainly decreased);
- deflationary trends in the world fuel market (according to the World Bank, Brent oil fell in price by 5,2% in August), which, despite the expected increase in excise taxes, contributed to the relative stabilization of fuel prices.