The inflation rate for January is set at 2,8%, preliminary results of the National Statistics Institute, show.

Prices by sector went up from December 2001 as follows: foods 3.1%, goods other than food 2.6%, public catering 1.4%, and other services 2.5%.

As for particular categories of goods, medicines went up 9.8%, bread 0.4%, vegetable oils 7.9%, fruits 6.9%, and vegetables 14.3%.

A slight price fall (less than 1%) was observed for rice, flour and citrus fruit. Poultry prices slid 2.5%, mushrooms 7.8%, lentils 3.8%, and sugar 7.7%.

Over the month, housing rents went up 4%, fuels for household use 1.1%, and solid fuels 9.4%.

Electricity prices grew 4.1% instead of the initially projected 10% due to the lower rates set after trade unions protested against the government-planned price review in December.

Bulgaria's 2001 industrial output rose by 0.7 percent from 2000 with the production of power, heating, gas and water leading the rise, figures from the National Statistics Institute (NSI) showed on Monday.

In January-December, industrial output rose due to a 4.2-percent rise in production of power, heating, gas and water and a 0.9-percent increase in processing industry output. But mining output fell 7.7 percent.

Bulgaria's December industrial output fell by 5.0 percent, year-on-year, as mining industry output was 13.8 percent lower, processing industry fell 6.8 percent, while production and distribution of electricity, heating, gas and water rose by 6.6 percent.

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