In July 2024, consumer inflation in Ukraine accelerated to 5.4% in annual terms, compared to 4.8% in June. These data, provided by the State Statistics Service and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), indicate certain changes in the economic situation.
The actual rates of price growth turned out to be somewhat lower than the forecast specified in the Inflation Report for last month. The reason for this was the less intense than expected effect of the heat on the formation of raw food prices.
Core inflation, which reflects changes in manufactured goods prices, rose to 5.7% in July, up from 5.0% in June. The main factor behind this growth was the faster increase in the price of processed food products. Reasons include rising energy costs, product storage and labor costs.
The heat also affected the prices of certain products. For example, milk prices have increased and banana prices have risen due to increased foreign demand.
On the other hand, the prices of some products have decreased. For example, wholesale prices for raspberries fell sharply, thanks to the large number of berries of autumn varieties that entered the market. Blueberry prices have also fallen due to low demand and poor product quality due to hot weather.
Also interesting is the slowing down of the price of sugar and cereals, which is connected with the depletion of stocks of the previous high harvests. Tomato prices have slowed down their decline, and cucumber prices have increased significantly due to a decrease in the supply of quality products against the background of difficult weather conditions.
