DUSHANBE, October 14, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- In Tajikistan consume prices have risen 4.5 percent since the beginning of the year, the head of the State Committee for Statistics Mirgand Shabozov remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe today.

According to him, a 2.2 percent increase in prices of products of food industry has been reported in January-August 2009 and non-foodstuffs have risen in cost by 5.2 percent over the report period.  Over the same nine-month period, prices and rates for services rendered to the population have increased by 13.6 percent.

The increase in cost of food products was caused by rise in prices of fruits and vegetables, sugar (51.1 percent), salt (29.6 percent), confectionary (10.2 percent), etc.

Non-foodstuffs rose in cost following significant rise n prices of gasoline – by 61.5 percent, shampoo -  by 23 percent, cement – by 14.4 percent,  pharmaceutical products – by 13.1 percent, etc.

As far as services rendered to the population are concerned, the ones that increased most significantly over the report period are: payment for natural gas – 89.5 percent; payment for electric energy – 56.3 percent; tickets for rail travel – 27.3 percent; and airline tickets – 21.4 percent.

Shabozov added that inflation for September stood at 0.4 percent.