Economic Research Center (ERC) presents the results of the statistical observation carried out in January 2012

With the financial support of Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation, the Economic Research Center (ERC) presents the results of the statistical observation carried out in January 2012 about the prices in 10 regions of Azerbaijan Republic. According to the results of the statistical research, the consumer prices in Azerbaijan rose 0.26 percent in the first month of the current year. During this, the food products increased about 0.81 percent while the non-food products decreased 0.87 percent, the services on the other hand became 0.23 percent more expensive.

Concerning the relative change of the Consumer Price Index since December 2011, in Baku the prices have risen 0.46 percent while it is the case about 0.07 percent in the regions. From this stance, the food products in Baku became 1.43 percent and in regions 0.20 percent more expensive. In contrary to this, the non-food products became cheaper of 1.48 percent in Baku and 0.26 percent in the regions. Regarding to the value of the services, it went up 0.36 percent in Baku and 0.11 percent in the regions during the month. The highest price increase in January took place in taxi service (20.39%), apple (16.52%), (raw-) boned meat of ship (4.97%), and semolina (2.25%). However, the cheapening is observed mostly in the prices of greens (12.74%), lemon (8.84%) etc.

In comparison to the same period of the last year (during 12 months), a general price increase of 10.41 percent is seen in the country. During this, the prices have risen 13.66 percent in Baku and 7.21 percent in the regions. The highest inflation appeared to be again in the food products (17.19) in the mentioned period. The increase took place about 0.85 percent in the prices of the non-food products, while the services got 5.64 percent more expensive.

The experts from ERC have also calculated the value of the minimal consumption basket in January based on the price observations in 10 regions and the standards of the Cabinet of Ministers that are approved with the order in 30.04.2009. According to these calculations, during the month, the value of the minimal consumption basket per capita for the able-bodied people was 169.42 AZN, for the pensioners 153.08 AZN and for the 0 to 14 year-old children 212.24 AZN. In the last month the able-bodied had to spend 105.21 AZN for food, while this was 95.01 AZN for pensioners and 120.84 AZN for the parents of the children from 0 to 14. During January, the minimal expenditures of the working people for the non-food products (calculated with the market prices) was 38.73 AZN, for the pensioners this was the case of 35.46 AZN and for the 0 to 14 year-old children 73.30 AZN. Also the service expenditures occurred to be accordingly 25.48 AZN, 22.61 AZN and 17.73 AZN.

To remind, according to the “Order about the living minimum in the Azerbaijan Republic for 2012”, the living minimum in the country was 108 AZN in 2012; 116 AZN for the able-bodied, 84 AZN for the pensioners and 87 AZN for the children.

ERC / Public Relations Department