23.6% the average increase in the prices of wholesale trade for the third quarter of 2008

Data issued by the Department of Statistics indicate an increase in the average wholesale trade general price index by 23.6 % for the third quarter of 2008 as compared with the same period of 2007. This increase has resulted from the rise in the prices of the Motor Vehicles Group and Parts by 9.4%, the wholesale trade of Agricultural Raw Materials, Food and Beverages by 28.1%, the Group of Non-food Personal and Household Commodities by 16.8 %, the Group of Non-agricultural Intermediate Products, Garbage and Scrap by 41.7% and the Non-Household Machinery, Apparatus and Equipment by 12.9 %.

The data pertaining to average wholesale trade general price index for the third quarter of 2008 has risen by 2.9% as compared with the second quarter of the same year. This increase has resulted from the rise in the prices of the Motor Vehicles Group and Parts by 3.4% with a relative importance of 19.4%, the wholesale trade of Agricultural Raw Materials, Food, Beverages and Tobacco by 2.7 % with a relative importance of 45.7%, the Group of Non-food Personal and Household Commodities by 4.4 % with a relative importance of 20.7%, the Group of Non-agricultural Intermediate Products, Garbage and Scrap by 1.5 % with a relative importance of 9.9% and the Non-Household Machinery, Apparatus and Equipment by 1.0 % with a relative importance of 4.3%.

The following table shows the quarterly inflation average (the current quarter compared with the previous quarter) for the years 2007 and 2008.

The following figure shows the trend of the Wholesale Trade General Index for 2007 and 2008