EU-harmonised inflation in Slovakia in May matched market expectations, rising from 3.7 percent year-on-year in April to 4 percent, data from the Statistics Office showed on June 16.
The main drivers behind the rise were prices in health care, which were up 10.6 percent on the year, and those in food and non-alcoholic beverages, which increased by 8.4 percent year-on-year. Prices in postal services and telecommunications were the only ones to register a fall - 0.8 percent year-on-year, the TASR newswire wrote.
Harmonised inflation also rose by 0.4 percent month-on-month as a result of a 1-percent increase in the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages. Prices fell by 0.1 percent month-on-month in recreation and culture, and in postal services and telecommunications.
Analysts had predicted an increase of 4 percent year-on-year after inflation measured by local methodology accelerated from 4.3 percent in April to 4.6 percent in May. None of this is stopping Slovakia from complying with the Maastricht criteria. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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