KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s consumer price inflation quickened to 4.8% year-on-year in June fuelled by an increase in consumer electricity prices, the statistics service said on Wednesday.
Inflation was 3.3% in May year-on-year, it said.
The statistics service said in a statement that electricity prices jumped by 63.6% in June.
Ukraine’s government was forced to increase electricity prices as it hunts for funds to repair the energy system, severely hit by the Russian bombardments.
Since March, Russian forces have stepped up their missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian power infrastructure, knocking out the bulk of the thermal and hydropower generation capacity.
Ukrainian officials have said that about half of the available generation capacity was destroyed in the past four months.
As businesses increasingly use generators to produce electricity, fuel prices have also increased. The statistics data showed that fuel prices grew by 25.5% in June year-on-year.
Ukraine’s central bank expects inflation to accelerate to 8.2% in 2024 after 5.1% in the previous year.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Angus MacSwan)
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