BRATISLAVA, December 13, (WEBNOVINY) – The y/y growth dynamics of consumer prices accelerated in November for the fourth month in a row. As the Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic reported on Tuesday, the inflation rate measured by the national methodology stood at 4.6 percent and grew most since November 2008. Consumer prices came up by 4.4 percent y/y in the previous month. The eleven-month inflation averaged 3.9 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from ten-month median. Prices in November soared by 0.5 percent from October, representing the highest monthly increase since January 2011.
Prices in the transportation sector grew most in annualized terms, i.e., 11.6 percent. Prices of housing, water supplies, electricity, gas and other fuels increased 6.1 percent. Prices of education jumped 5.9 percent. Prices of food and soft drinks came up by 5.2 percent, prices of health services by 4.9 percent, prices of miscellaneous goods and services by 4.3 percent, prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco by 3.7 percent, prices at hotels, cafes and restaurants by 3.6 percent, prices of clothes and footwear by 2.2 percent, prices of postal and telecommunications services by 0.6 percent and prices of relaxation and culture by 0.4 percent. The statistical authority reported a price decline by 0.4 percent in the category of furniture, home furnishings and common house maintenance.
Prices in the sector of transport increased 4.3 percent on a monthly basis. Prices of food and soft drinks came up by 0.5 percent. Customers paid 0.3 percent more at hotels, cafes and restaurants and for miscellaneous goods and services. Prices of clothes and footwear, housing, electricity, water supplies, gas and other fuels and prices of health services increased an identical 0.1 percent. Then again, an identical decline by 0.3 percent was reported in prices of alcoholic drinks and tobacco and furniture, home furnishings and common house maintenance. Postal and telecommunications services, education and culture and relaxation stagnated at October’s rates.
The y/y core inflation, which monitors consumer prices excluding regulated prices and administrative interventions in taxation, slackened from October’s 2.7 percent to 2.5 percent. Net inflation, which disregards also the food price development, accelerated year-on-year from 2.1 percent in October to 2.2 percent in November. On a monthly basis, core inflation was 0.2 percent and net inflation reached 0.1 percent.
Slovakia has returned to quicker price growth after it posted the historic low inflation of 1 percent on average in 2010 caused by a steep decline in demand amidst the crisis. In its latest prognosis, the Finance Ministry estimates the average inflation measured by the national methodology at 3.9 percent. Next year, it is expected to decelerate to 2.6 percent.
SITA
