ZAGREB, May 15 (Hina) - Consumer prices in April 2019 were 0.7% higher than in the same month of 2018 and 0.6% higher than in the previous month, the national statistical office (DZS) said on Wednesday. This is a slower monthly and annual inflation rate considering that in March consumer prices grew by one percent from February, with the annual inflation rate in March being 0.9%.
DZS figures show that prices of alcohol and tobacco saw the highest annual increase, of 4.8%, followed by prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which went up by 3.9%.
Prices of transport grew by an average 2.8% from April last year. Prices of restaurant and hotel services rose by 3.2%, and prices of recreation and culture went up 1.1%.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have the largest portion in the structure of consumer prices, of 27.8%, dropped by 1.7%. Prices of fruit dropped the most on the year, by 16.3%, followed by prices of meat, which fell by 3.1%.
Earlier this year the VAT rate for a number of food products was lowered from 25% to 13%.
Prices of clothing and footwear dropped as well, by 3%, while prices of healthcare services and communications declined by 1.3% and 0.4% respectively.
Month-on-month, consumer prices grew for the third consecutive month, going up in April by 0.6% from March.
Analysts at Raiffeisenbank Austria said that the statistics indicated that future inflation trends would be determined by energy and food prices, with energy prices depending on trends on world commodity markets.
"Inflation will remain moderate this year again and we expect an average annual inflation rate of around 1% in 2019," the analysts said.
More news about inflation in Croatia can be found in the Business section.
