HEADLINE inflation in Slovakia again decelerated in January, from 4.4 percent in December to 3.7 percent. In monthly terms, consumer prices grew in January by 0.7 percent, while in December they fell by 0.2 percent, the Slovak Statistics Office reported, as quoted by SITA.
In January, the year-on-year growth rate of food prices continued to fall. Following December’s pace of 2.5 percent, food prices were only 1.2 percent higher year-on-year in January. The average year-on-year growth of food prices in some months of 2008 were as much as 8 percent. In month-on-month terms, food prices in January increased by 0.7 percent.
The slower growth of food prices results in deceleration of the core inflation rate, which measures the growth of consumer prices excluding regulated prices and the effects of taxes. Year-on-year core inflation fell in December to 2.5 percent. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation was 0.3 percent, compared to minus 0.4 percent in December. Net inflation in January reached 2.8 percent in annual terms, which was a drop from 3.5 percent reported in December.
