September the 18th, 2022 - Croatian inflation might still be hitting bank accounts and back pockets hard, and while it might not seem like it to the average consumer, it has gradually been calming down consistently over a four month period.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, food and home equipment, along with items for household maintenance, were at the very ''front'' when it comes to price growth on a monthly basis in August compared to July, according to a recent Vecernji list report on the topic.
Food and home furnishings rose in price by 1.7 percent in one month, while restaurants and hotels came in third place with a mere one percent price increase.
The annual inflation rate has as such remained at a high double-digit figure of 12.3 percent during the second summer month, but the price growth at the monthly level still slowed down to just 0.1 percent.
In August this year, the first stronger price reductions were recorded in two groups, they were transportation costs which decreased by around 4 percent due to reduced fuel prices and clothing and footwear which decreased in price by 3 percent, meaning that the overall result on a monthly level brought with it a plus of 0.1 percent.
The good news is that the intensity with which Croatian inflation is ravaging the country and its pockets is actually decreasing for the fourth month in a row now. Cumulatively, in the first eight months of this year, the consumer price index was 9.5 percent higher when compared to the same period last year.
If you look at the European Union as a whole, the biggest summer price shock happened in neighbouring Hungary, where the annual inflation rate stands at almost 19 percent, and in August alone, the price jump was a significant 3.7 percent. Inflation accelerated in August in both the Eurozone (9.1 percent) and across the European Union (10.1 percent), with prices falling in twelve member states and further price increases occurring in fifteen of them on a monthly basis.
Food has been the leader of growth almost everywhere, with the fact that at the level of the European Union, the increase in the price of food items on an annual level stood at 10 percent, and when it comes to Croatian inflation specifically, it was twice as strong, standing at 19.2 percent.
Restaurants and hotels rose in price by 17.6 percent, furniture, home equipment and regular household maintenance rose by 15.3 percent, transportation and associated costs rosr by 14 percent. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels were more expensive by a considerable 10.5 percent, recreation and culture by 9.4 percent, various goods and services by 8 percent, and clothing and footwear by 6.4 percent, as reported by Ljubica Gataric/Vecernji list.
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