OREANDA-NEWS. First Vice Prime Minister, Finance Minister Mykola Azarov hopes that inflation will not exceed 11 percent in 2007, reported the Official website www.kmu.gov.ua.

He added that the Government will consider the situation Wednesday and take a number of measures to stabilize the prices at food markets.

According to Mr. Azarov, a detailed analysis of the situation suggests an excess of supply over demand for all the primary goods on the food market, therefore traders may have to lower the profit margin and the markup.

The Finance Minister is convinced that the Cabinet will be able to stabilize the situation on the food market within two or three weeks provided local governments are cooperative.

Earlier, the Cabinet forecasted inflation at 7,5 percent in 2007.

The government plans to reconsider the macroeconomic estimates in the 2007 budget, given the fact that inflation reached 8,6 percent over the nine months of 2007. The Economics Ministry believes that the inflation estimate for 2007 should be raised to 10 percent.

The president's Secretariat forecasts inflation to reach 11,8-12 percent in 2007.

Inflation was 2,2 percent in September and 8,6 percent over January-September.