Inflation Drops to 2% in December (adds)

Ljubljana, 29 December (STA) - Slovenia's annual inflation rate stood at

2% in December, down from 2.7% a month earlier, on the back of

across-the-board reduction of goods prices due to winter sales, the

Statistics Office said Thursday.

Measured with the harmonised index of consumer prices, an EU benchmark,

prices were up by 2.1% year-on-year.

The monthly inflation rate was a

negative 0.6%, largely due to a 5.8% drop in clothing and footwear prices

and lower prices of fruit (-4.5%) and telecommunications services

(-2.7%).

Lower prices of clothing and footwear pushed the inflation

rate down by half a percentage point, while prices of fruit, telephone and

other equipment, and other drops in December contributed 0.1 percentage

points each.

Price rises were registered only in the groups

recreation and culture (0.5%), miscellaneous goods and services (0.3%),

restaurants and hotels (0.2%), housing, water, electricity and other

(0.1%), and education (0.1%).

Higher prices of package holidays and

higher meat prices pushed the inflation up by 0.1 percentage points

each.

At the annual level the highest price growth was recorded in

the groups housing, water, electricity and gas (5.0%), food and

non-alcoholic beverages, and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.9% each),

and miscellaneous goods and services (2.8%).

In the group housing,

water, electricity and gas, liquid fuel prices went up the most (21.5%),

followed by gas (12.3%) and heat energy (9.5%).

Prices were lower in

communication (3.3%), clothing and footwear (1.5%) and recreation and

culture (1.2%). The prices of goods and services in the group health were

the same as a year ago.

Annual price growth was driven by higher

prices in the group food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.84 p.p.), housing,

water, electricity and other (0.66 p.p.), alcoholic beverages and tobacco

(0.27 p.p.) and transport (0.20 p.p.).