The growth of the Croatian CPI continues in 2022, reaching 6.3% YoY in February.
The Croatian Bureau of Statistics has released its monthly report on the movements of the CPI (Consumer price indices) for February 2022. In it, we can see that in February, the prices of goods and services for personal consumption increased by 6.3% YoY, on average. This marks the largest relative increase in CPI since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, also achieving an all-time high since that period. This is also slightly above the 5.8% inflation rate experienced in the Eurozone in February.
CPI for the TTM (trailing 12 months) compared to the same period last year recorded an increase of 3.6%. The growth in CPI was driven by several parameters: Food and non-alcoholic beverages, which account for 26% of the total CPI, increased by 10% YoY. Transport, the 3rd largest component of the CPI, (at 14.7%), increased by 10.7%.
CPI (January 2013 – February 2022)
Breaking the CPI further, Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (the 2nd largest component of the CPI at 16.9%), increased by 3.3% YoY. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance increased by 6.5% YoY. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which account for 5.1% of the CPI, increased by 6.4%. The only other category with an increase of over 5% was Restaurants and hotels, which grew by 6.2% YoY. Overall, most of the remaining categories had single-digit increases YoY, with Health and Education being the only ones below 1%, at 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.
On an MoM basis, the CPI increased by 0.9%. The largest relative MoM increase was experienced by Clothing and footwear, at 3%, followed by Furnishings household equipment and routine household maintenance, at 1.9%.
CPI change by categories – February 2022 (%)
Looking over to the CPI by selected groups, Goods had an increase of 7.9%, Services increased by 1.7%, the total increase without energy was at 5.5%, and if we were to exclude food as well, the total without these two categories would stand at 3.2%.
