January starts with lower price growth, inflation drops to 3.4%

2024-02-13 13:26:00, Ekonomi CNA

The pace of price increases eased in January as inflation hit 3.4%, the lowest since November 2021.

From a low level throughout the past decade, inflation began to rise from high post-pandemic demand in the second half of 2021, as it intensified further after the war in Ukraine.

According to today's INSTAT data, a year ago this change was 7.2%. The monthly change of the consumer price index in January 2024 compared to December 2023 is 0.5%.

The annual increase in prices in January was mainly influenced by the group "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" with +1.91 percentage points, followed by the group "Rent, water, fuel and energy" with +0.44 percentage points. Also, the prices of the group "Furniture, household appliances and home maintenance" were affected by +0.37 percentage points, the prices of the group "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" by +0.19 percentage points, the prices of the groups "Hotels, cafes and restaurants" ” and “Miscellaneous goods and services” with +0.18 percentage points each, the prices of the “Clothing and shoes” and “Entertainment and culture” groups with +0.12 percentage points each, the prices of the “Educational service” group with + 0.07 percentage points, the prices of the "Health" group by +0.06 percentage points and the prices of the "Communication" group by +0.01 percentage points.

The prices of the "Transport" group have contributed with -0.27 percentage points.

Compared to the month of January 2023, the largest increase in prices is observed in the group "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" with 5.3%, followed by the groups "Furniture, home appliances and home maintenance" and "Entertainment and culture" with 5.0 %,. Group "Hotels, cafes and restaurants" with 4.0%, "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" with 3.9%, "Miscellaneous goods and services" with 3.4%, "Clothing and shoes" with 3.3%, "Rent, water, fuel and energy" with 2.3%. Also, "Educational service" increased by 2.2%, "Health" by 1.6% and "Communication" by 0.3%. On the other hand, the prices of the "Transporti" group decreased by 4.3%. Within the food group, the prices of the subgroup "vegetables including potatoes" increased by 16.4%, followed by the subgroups "fruit" by 8.8%, "milk, cheese and eggs" by 5.5%, "meat" by 4 ,3%, "sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and sweets" with 2.7%, "fish" with 2.3%, etc.

Compared to December 2023, the prices of the group "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" increased by 1.3%, followed by the groups "Furniture, household appliances and home maintenance" by 0.7%, "Health" by 0.3% , "Clothing and shoes", "Hotels, cafes and restaurants" and "Miscellaneous goods and services" with 0.2% each, "Alcoholic beverages and tobacco" and "Entertainment and culture" with 0.1% each. On the other hand, the prices of the "Transporti" group decreased by 0.4%./Monitor