The share of the rural population in the total population decreased slightly, from 42.6% in 2015 to 41.3% in the beginning of 2019. The share of agriculture in total GDP has also declined, from 9.1% in 2015 to 7.7% in 2018. While production figures have gone up, there was a 6.4% increase in agricultural production in 2018 compared to the previous year. Production in the plant-growing sector increased by 10.9%, and animal production experienced an increase of 2.1% compared to 2017. Looking at the self-sufficiency ratio, the highest decrease was for grapes, followed by vegetables, and the highest increase was for meat, followed by maize.

Revenue from the sales of agricultural products in 2018 has increased compared to the 2014‐2017 period, both in percentage and absolute terms. Increased production is the most likely reason for this result. Another possible explanation would be that other sources of income aside from selling agricultural products contributed to households’ income, but since there were no significant structural changes observed in the country in recent years, increased production is most likely responsible for the increased sales revenue.
As to the prices, for food and non-alcoholic beverages, the month-over-month prices increased by 1.2%, contributing 0.37 percentage points to the change in total CPI. The main drivers were price fluctuations in the following subgroups: vegetables (+8.1%), fruit and grapes (+7.1%), and milk, cheese, and eggs (-5.7%)
From an annual perspective (May 2019 vs. May 2018), the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 7.9%, contributing 2.43 percentage points to the change in total CPI. In May 2019, the sharpest price changes on an annual basis were observed within the following subgroups: vegetables (+33.7%), fish (+13.5%), and fruit and grapes (-19.9%).