"The 1% rise in (consumer) prices in March compared with February was not unexpected. This could be anticipated given oil and services prices," Nerijus Maciulis told on April 8th.
"Rising services prices are more of a positive than a negative phenomenon, because this is directly related to people's increasing income and rapidly growing wages," he said.
The economist expects consumer prices in Lithuania to continue rising due to growing wages.
"We forecast that average annual inflation (in Lithuania) will reach around 2% this year and around 3% next year," Maciulis said.
"However, we do not see this in many other eurozone countries. Inflation in the eurozone will not rise to 2% either this year or next year even with rising oil prices, because wages in many countries are either not increasing at all or are increasing at a sluggish pace, which keeps prices for many products and services unchanged," the economist said.
"In Lithuania, we see a positive trend. Lithuania is catching up with the EU average, both in terms of prices and wages," he added.
According to figures from Statistics Lithuania, the country recorded a 1% annual inflation rate in March. The annual inflation rate reached 1.2% and the average annual inflation rate was at minus 0.3%.
