Albanian Jan. inflation rises 4 pct

Albania's EU-harmonized consumer price inflation rose 4 percent year on year in January from a year ago, official data revealed Wednesday.

According to the institute of statistics (INSTAT), the inflation growth was mainly driven by the increase of 8.5 percent in the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have the largest weight of 38.02 percent in the consumer basket.

HICP measures consumer price inflation in the euro area, INSTAT said. It is compiled according to a methodology that has been harmonized across EU countries to ensure that the data for one country can be compared with the data for another.

On a month-to-month basis, Albania's HICP increased by 2.5 percent in January compared to December of 2016, INSTAT said in a statement, marking the launch of inflation measurement through the HICP.

In terms of consumer price index (CPI), the official measure of inflation in Albania, it rose by 2.8 percent in January year on year, INSTAT reported earlier this month.

The increase of inflation to 2.8 pct was seen as a positive signal by Albania's authorities and financial institutions which said that the consumers purchasing power had improved. Endit