Stats Office: EU-harmonised Inflation Down to 0.7 percent Y-oY in January

Bratislava, February 23 - Year-on-year (y-o-y) inflation measured by the EU's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) went down significantly to 0.7 percent in January, the Statistics Office reported on Tuesday, ascribing the decrease chiefly to y-o-y drops in food and energy prices. Monthly HICP in January 2021 stood at 0.3 percent, compared to the 1.3 percent seen in January 2020, with the drop chiefly resulting from developments in energy prices. As for details concerning monthly developments in January, the index was mainly influenced by the following increases: in the prices of postal and telecommunications services (0.26 percentage points/p.p.); in food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.25 p.p.); in transport (0.19 p.p.); and in recreation and culture (0.10 p.p.). Conversely, downward pressure on prices month-on-month was exerted by the prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (-0.52 p.p.). The average harmonised inflation rate for the 12-month period ending in January 2021 amounted to 1.8 percent. It decreased by 0.2 p.p. from December 2020. The Statistics Office noted that standard data collection on the ground in January was replaced by data from other available sources, including websites, e-shops and telephone and email inquiries. This was due to selected outlets being shut down as part of measures to fight the spread of coronavirus. ko/df