Inflation fell to 6.2% in August, but services rose by more than 11%. Why the slowdown is not felt equally

Updated: 20 September 2026 la 12:05. Articolul a fost revizuit pentru a reflecta informațiile disponibile la această dată.

Romania’s annual inflation rate fell to 6.2% in August 2026, from 8.16% in July, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). This marks a visible slowdown in the annual pace of price increases, but it does not mean that goods and services became cheaper: compared with July, consumer prices still rose by 0.22%, while they were 4.6% higher than in December 2025.

For more information about the National Bank of Romania (BNR), readers can also consult Inflation falls only on paper: Romanians still pay huge prices on the shelves, which provides complementary details on this topic.

The distinction matters for a household budget. The annual rate compares August 2026 with August 2025 and can decline partly because of base effects—that is, because it is compared with an earlier period when prices had risen sharply. The monthly change, by contrast, shows whether that consumer basket became cheaper or more expensive between July and August. In August, the answer was: more expensive.

Services remained the main pressure in the consumer basket

On an annual basis, services became 11.28% more expensive, well above the overall inflation rate. Non-food goods recorded an increase of 6.36%, while food goods rose by 2.62%.

A national average does not automatically reflect the spending of every household. Someone who allocates a large share of their income to rent, repairs, personal services, education or other services may feel price increases more strongly than the overall 6.2% figure suggests. By contrast, for a budget dominated by food, the lower annual increase in that group may partly ease the pressure.

INS calculates the consumer price index for households’ direct consumption expenditure. The methodology does not include, for example, interest paid on loans, investments or fines. The index is therefore the statistical benchmark for inflation, but it is not a personalised bill for every household. Details on the indicator’s definition and data series are available in the INS CPI database.

Romania remained first in the EU on the comparable indicator

The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, abbreviated as HICP, is used for comparisons between member states. It uses a methodology harmonised at European level and should not automatically be confused with the national CPI, even though both measure changes in consumer prices.

In August, Romania’s annual HICP-based rate was 6.3%. Eurostat therefore placed Romania first in the European Union, ahead of Lithuania at 5.6% and Cyprus at 5.2%. The EU average was 3.2%, while the euro area average was also 3.2%.

In other words, the decline from July was real and significant, but the gap from the average European pace remained wide. Romania no longer had July’s harmonised rate of 8.2% in August, but the 6.3% level was still almost twice the EU average.

What the 6.2% figure does not show

A lower annual rate indicates disinflation: prices are rising more slowly than in the month used for comparison. This is not the same as deflation, a situation in which the overall price level falls. For consumers to see a broad month-on-month price decline, the monthly change would need to be negative; in August, it was positive.

Moreover, data for broad categories alone do not make it possible to determine a single cause for the nearly two-percentage-point decline in annual inflation from July. A complete explanation would require a detailed analysis of the basket’s components, their weights and the comparison effects from August 2025.

What is worth watching next

The next data releases will show whether the moderation is confirmed in the autumn. For household budgets, the three most useful benchmarks are the monthly CPI trend, the gap between services and goods, and the actual prices of recurring expenses. For travel costs, readers can separately check fuel prices in Romania, as these can vary significantly between cities and operators and cannot be inferred from the overall inflation rate.

In its August report, the National Bank of Romania projected inflation of 6.1% at the end of 2026. This is a forecast, not a certainty: it may be revised by developments in administered prices, energy, food, the exchange rate and domestic demand.