According to the latest release by the Slovenian Statistical Office, the CPI in August 2023 grew by 6.2% YoY, and 0.1% MoM.
With the end of August, many EU countries have released their CPI estimates for the month, including Croatia and Slovenia. In this article, we’ll review the changes in Slovenia. According to the press release by the Slovenian Statistical Office, the CPI grew by 6.2% YoY, and 0.1% MoM. Breaking this down further, services on average grew by 8% YoY, followed by goods at 5.2%. In the goods category, semi-durable goods recorded growth of 6.2%, non-durable goods of 5.9%, and durable goods of 1.8%.
In terms of the impact on the annual inflation, 1.8 p.p. came from the 10.4% higher prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, 0.9 p.p. from 8.7% higher prices in recreation and culture. Furthermore, higher prices of products in health, increasing by 11%, and restaurants and hotels, growing by 8.7%, each due to the structure of the CPI contributed 0.6 p.p. to its growth, or in total 1.2 p.p. YoY. On the other hand, electricity was 13.1% lower, which reduced annual inflation by 0.7 p.p. YoY. Finally, petroleum products decreased the annual inflation by 0.6 p.p., as the prices of liquid fuels decreased by 19.1%, of diesel by 7.4%, and of petrol by 3.8% YoY.
Moving on to the monthly change, higher prices of motor fuels (diesel increasing by 5.1%, petrol by 4.5%) added 0.2 p.p. to the monthly inflation. Higher prices of packages of domestic holidays (+2.5%), meat (+2.4%), water supply and miscellaneous services related to the dwelling (+1.4%), and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (+0.7%), each contributed to 0.1 p.p. growth in monthly inflation, or 0.4 p.p. in total. On the flipside, lower prices of clothing and footwear, which decreased by 3.7% MoM decreased the overall inflation by 0.2 p.p., while lower prices of fruit (-3.5%), and health (-1.5%), each contributed to a 0.1 p.p. decrease in overall MoM inflation. All other price decreases in August contributed to a 0.1 p.p. reduction in the CPI.
Slovenian CPI (January 2011 – August 2023, YoY, %)
Source: Slovenian Statistical Office, InterCapital Research
Taking a quick look at the harmonized index of consumer prices, its growth amounted to 6.1% YoY in August, while on the monthly level, it grew by 0.2%. On average, service prices increased by 8.3%, and goods by 4.9%. In the goods category, semi-durable goods prices increased by 5.9%, non-durable goods prices by 5.8%, and durable goods prices by 0.4%. As compared to the Euro area, where inflation stood at 5.3% YoY in August, Slovenian inflation is slightly elevated.
