Financial News

Russia Struggles To Cope With Rising Inflation

Worsening fighting in The Ukraine is stressing the Russian economy, with rising inflation and a weakening rouble pushing up prices for businesses and consumers.

Sanctions imposed as a result of the conflict are starting to bite and moves to lessen the impact are having mixed results.

With inflation up 1.7% since June to 7.8%, President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put an embargo on food imports would seem destined to fuel rising prices.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Russia has pledged to let the rouble float, which is likely to see the value of the currency drop even more against other major currencies.

Cost of living benchmark

Putin is allegedly in talks with the government in The Ukraine to resolve the border and annexation of The Crimea issues, but any ceasefire is likely a long way off.

Below are lists of the countries with inflation of 10% or more – the high rates are generally down to government mishandling of the economy and civil conflict.

As a benchmark, average global inflation is estimated as 4.39% in August 2014, compared to a rate of 4.62% 12 months ago. The figures come from expat benefits firm ECA International’s blog Money Moves, which warns the global inflation statistics are a rule-of-thumb and not adjusted results.

Countries with more than 10% inflation
CountryInflationReporting dateTrend
Syria88.3%December 2013DOWN
Venezuela60.9%May 2014UP
Sudan46.8%July 2014UP
Malawi30.0%June 2014-
Argentina20.5%April 2014UP
Belarus20.1%July 2014UP
Central African Republic15.4%March 2014UP
Ghana15.0%June 2014UP
Iran14.6%June 2014DOWN
Mongolia13.9%June 2014UP
Ukraine12.6%July 2014UP
Egypt10.6%July 2014UP
Guinea10.2%April 2014-
Source: MoneyMoves
Inflation alert countries
CountryInflationReporting dateTrend
Bolivia7.5%July 2014Up 1.1% since May 2014
Costa Rica5.2%July 2014Up 2.5% since February 2014
Ethiopia9.0%July 2014Up 1.4% since January 2014
Gabon8.2%April 2014Up 4.9% since December 2013
Honduras6.6%July 2014Up 1.7% since December 2013
Kenya7.7%July 2014Up 1.4% since March 2014
Kyrgyzsatan8.5%June 2014Up 4.3% since February 2014
Liberia9.6%May 2014Up 1.8% since February 2014
Nicaragua6.8%July 2014Up 2.1% since May 2014
Russia7.8%June 2014Up 1.7% since January 2014
Tajikistan6.6%June 2014Up 1.7% since March 2014
Turkey9.3%June 2014Up 1.9% since December 2013
Source: MoneyMoves

 

Leave a Comment