Ukraine's full-year inflation in 2007 jumped to 16.6 percent from 11.6 percent the previous year, data from the State Statistics Committee showed on Saturday, higher than an already revised 14.5 percent target.
Inflation in the former Soviet state soared beyond government and analysts' expectations during the summer months when the worst drought in half a century destroyed crops, pushing up prices for food staples. The figure is the highest since 2000, when inflation climbed to almost 26 percent.
Month-on-month inflation slowed to 2.1 percent in December, against a rise of 2.2 percent the month before. Ukraine's new Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko predicted on Friday that price rises for the full year would top 17 percent, blaming the actions of the previous government of Victor Yanukovich, replaced by her administration in December.
Central bank officials had criticised the old government for setting an initial target of 7.5 percent for full-year inflation as unachievable and for boosting social spending during the election year.
They warned the new government to be very careful in how it implements social promises made in the run up to the election in September. The official government forecast for 2008 inflation - formulated by Yanukovich's administration - was 9.6 percent, though central bank chairman Volodymyr Stelmakh has said the figure would be closer to 11.8 percent. Data from the statistics committee also showed producer price inflation in 2007 climbed to 23.3 percent from 14.1 percent in 2006.
Apart from food price rises, which has hit the region in general, Ukraine has also had to absorb steep rises in the price for Russian gas - last year it rose to $130 per 1,000 cubic metres from $95 in 2006, and this year to $179.5.
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