NOT ONLY the national methodology, but also the European Union’s harmonised index of consumer prices confirm the slow in inflation, marking it at 0.4 percent in December 2013, 0.1 percentage points lower than in November. Average annual inflation rate, expressed by increase in the average annual harmonised index of consumer prices for the last 12 months in comparison with the average for the preceding 12 months, reached 1.5 percent in December 2013, the Statistics Office said.
On annual base the prices in education grew most: by 5.7 percent. The rise was also indicated in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (2.4 percent), hotels, cafés and restaurants (1.6 percent), clothing and footwear (1.1 percent), recreation and culture (0.8 percent) and health (0.6 percent). The prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels posted only slight growth at 0.2 percent. On the other hand, the prices of transport dropped by 1.2 percent, followed by fall in the prices of post and telecommunications by 1 percent, furniture, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house by 0.7 percent and miscellaneous goods and services by 0.2 percent, the SITA newswire reported.
The prices on a monthly basis increased only in miscellaneous goods and services (by 0.2 percent) and transport (by 0.1 percent), while they dropped in food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.9 percent), furniture, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, health, and recreation and culture (all by 0.1 percent). The prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and footwear, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, post and telecommunications, education, and hotels, cafés and restaurants remained the same as in November 2013, SITA wrote.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
