Ljubljana, 29 February (STA) - Slovenia's annual inflation rate rose by
0.6 percentage points to 2.9% in February chiefly due to a hike in fuel
prices. Consumer prices rose at a monthly rate of 0.6%, the Statistics
Office said on Wednesday.
Prices of petroleum products soared by 5.6% in the first two month of
the year, reaching new all-time highs in February. Heating oil now costs
86.6% more than five years ago and regular unleaded petrol is costlier by
50%.
This month the prices of liquid fuels rose by 2.9%, district
heating prices went up by 2.8%, gas prices by 2.1% and electricity prices
by 1.6%.
Dearer fuel also pushed up the prices of air passenger
transport by 4.7%. Package holidays were costlier by 1.9%.
February
also saw a marked growth in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages
due to a 7.5% hike in the prices of vegetables and 5.5% dearer
fruit.
Higher prices of petroleum products contributed 0.2 percentage
points to inflation, while higher prices of fruit, vegetables, electricity
and package holidays each added 0.1 point.
But lower prices of
clothing and footwear (-0.9%) pushed the monthly inflation rate down by 0.1
of a percentage point.
Year-on-year, the highest price hikes were
recorded in the group recreation and culture (6.8%), followed by housing,
water, electricity, gas (5.3%), food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic
beverages and tobacco (3.9%).
Meanwhile, prices clothing and footwear
decreased by 3.5% in the past 12 months.
Measured with the harmonised
index of consumer prices, an EU benchmark, prices in Slovenia went up by
2.8% in the past twelve months.