Romania's annual inflation to reach the top value of 9.2 - 9.4% in July, analysts deem

Higher prices for gas and electricity, as well as excise taxes increase paved the pay to a yearly inflation of 9.2 - 9.4 percent in July, a level which has not been registered for three years, estimate analysts, which consider plausible the central bank's inflation prognosis of 6.6 percent for 2008.

Inflation's annual rate did not exceed 9 percent since July 2005, when the country's Statistics Institute (INS) posted a yearly inflation of 9.3 percent.

Chief economist with Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Ionut Dumitru, deems the annual inflation to stand at 9.3 percent in July and at 8.5 percent in August. He also expects inflation to temper at 6.5 percent at the end of the year.

Romania's Central Bank (BNR) recently revised upwards inflation prognosis from 6 to 6.6 percent for the end of 2008, calculating a 140 U.S. dollars price for a barrel of petrol, considered too high by most analysts.

Newsin