Year-on-year inflation in Bulgaria rose to 14.2 per cent in March, according to preliminary data released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on April 14 2008. The figure is the highest recorded in Bulgaria since May 1998, when it was 18.8 per cent.

March inflation was 0.8 per cent, down from 1.1 per cent a month earlier. Food prices once again were the main driver of inflation, rising by 1.0 per cent for the month. Services prices went up by 0.4 per cent and non-food goods were 0.8 per cent higher.

Harmonised inflation, the figure calculated by the statistics board for comparison with inflation in the European Union, was 0.9 per cent in March and 13.2 per cent year-on-year, compared with 1.0 per cent for the month and 12.2 per cent year-on-year in February.

The Cabinet targets reducing harmonised inflation figure to 4.5 per cent for the year.

Officials have blamed last year's drought and floods for the rising food prices, which grew by more than 20 per cent in 2007, causing inflation to overshoot the Government's original 4.4 per cent target for 2007. End-year inflation was 12.5 per cent.

Romania, which joined the EU together with Bulgaria in January 2007, reported year-on-year inflation of 8.63 per cent on April 14, reaching a 26-month high.