The Central Bank has published a review of inflation expectations of the population and businesses for March.

According to it, the population’s inflation expectations increased by 1% compared to February and amounted to 15%.

The population believes that the following factors will affect future price increases:

•  exchange rate fluctuations (54%);
•  increase in prices for imported goods and basic foodstuffs (49%);
•  artificial increase in prices (37%).
•  factors such as rising wages and benefits (23%) and rising energy prices (18%) also had a significant impact on inflation expectations.

For information, the population’s inflation expectations have been declining since November last year.

Inflation expectations of business entities

According to the results of March, the expectations of the respondents on the growth of prices for the next 12 months amounted to 15.4%, an increase of 0.8% over the previous month.

What factors do businesses think will affect the rise in prices?

•  exchange rate fluctuations (51%);
•  increase in prices for fuel and transport services (36%);
•  increase in prices for imported raw materials and components as a result of changes in external economic conditions (22%).

At the same time, 17% of business representatives surveyed said that wages and benefits would increase in the future, and 14% said that the competitive environment in the economy could worsen.