Industrial Producer Prices Rose 2.7% In February

We observe a tendency of increasing gap between PPI and CPI indices — in 2004 industrial producer prices grew by 24.1% on the background of consumer prices increase at 12.3%. Such a worrying dynamic has found its continuation this year ? CPI is 2.7% YTD vs. 2.9% of PPI. This may significantly fuel a growth in consumer prices in future. Thus we still keep our 2005 inflation forecast at 11%.