Inflation Stays At 0% In August.

The CPI growth rate remained unchanged in August and totaled 6.7% YTD. Prices for food commodities fell in August by 0.6%, while costs for non-food commodities went up 0.7%. Costs for services also rose by 1.7%. Concorde Capital: CPI growth rates are always lower in the summer months due to seasonal factors ? decline in food prices. In general, this year CPI growth rates move between two historical trends: The CPI of 1999 with an annual rate of 19.2% and 2004 CPI ended the year at 12.3%. Thus, the CPI rate will probably be in this range by the end of the year. Our annual CPI forecast is 13%. In addition, PPI pressure on the CPI has been eased this year: in Jan-Aug the difference between these two indexes was only 0.7%.  For the same period last year it was 12%. The lower PPI growth rate this year can be largely explained by the drop in steel prices in Apr-Jul.