Actual rates of price growth in June were close to NBU's target

The actual pace of price growth was close to the National Bank's target of 5% and was only slightly lower than the forecast published in the April 2024 Inflation Report.

This is stated in the message of the NBU, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

As before, the deviation from the forecast is primarily caused by the dynamics of prices for raw food products in April-May, the fall of which in annual terms turned out to be more significant than expected.

This reflects the impact of strong harvests last year and warm weather earlier this year.

Fuel also rose in price somewhat more slowly due to the lower-than-expected oil price.

Fundamental inflationary pressure remained stable.

Core inflation rose to 5.0% in June from 4.4% in May.

Such dynamics corresponded to the NBU's April forecast.

On the one hand, it was supported by further growth in business costs for labor and electricity, a certain worsening of inflationary expectations, in particular, due to the weakening of the hryvnia exchange rate.

On the other hand, the restraining factors were secondary effects from the cheapening of raw food products.

The decline in prices for raw food slowed down somewhat - to 6.5% y/y.

In particular, the rate of fall in egg prices decreased sharply, probably due to a reduction in production and an increase in production costs for electricity in hot weather conditions.

The decline in sugar prices has somewhat slowed down against the background of expanding the geography of its export.

The fall in prices for flour and cereals also slowed down.

Prices for tomatoes and cucumbers decreased more and more slowly.

Certain vegetables of the borscht set and apples fell in price due to hot weather and increased sales of products from warehouses against the background of rising storage costs, in particular due to interruptions in the supply of electricity.

Thanks to the further recovery of animal husbandry, the growth of meat prices continued to slow down, and pork became significantly cheaper.

The growth of milk prices also slowed down somewhat.

Due to the limited supply of quality products, the price of potatoes, beets and some fruits remained high.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in June 2024, consumer prices rose by 2.2%.

In January-June 2024, inflation was 4.3%.