A new report published by statistics portal STATEC on Wednesday has revealed that the consumer price index fell 1.2% in January 2016 compared with the previous month, whilst the inflation rate also experienced a drop to 0.5%.
According to STATEC, the drop in the consumer price index is due to price reductions offered during the winter sales, with the decline further accentuated by a slowdown in oil prices. Prices of other goods and services, excluding oil products, rose 0.2%.
Although products in the 'clothing and footwear' division fell 17.2% in January 2016 compared to December 2015, this domain still experienced a growth of 2.0% with regards to the previous year. Home furnishings, appliances and personal consumable products were also impacted by the sales, but to a lesser extent.
Fuel products declined by 4.3% compared to December, with the price of heating oil falling 10.5% and those of diesel and petrol slowing by 5.6% and 3.4%, respectively.
However, excluding these oil products, the prices of goods and services were on the rise, increasing by 0.2% from December 2015 to January of this year. This was borne of a 1.6% rise in package holiday prices. Other activities that helped contribute to the index recovery were new and used cars; alcohol at the checkout; transport insurance; rubbish removal; nursing and care homes; and car maintenance and repair.
By contrast, prices fell 14.5% for air passenger transport, although STATEC stated that this was due to the face that December is a peak season for travelling due to the holidays. In January 2016, prices for air transport were more or less equal to those in January of last year.
The annual inflation rate went from 1.1% in Decmber to 0.5% in January, whilst the underlying inflation rate fell 1.9% to 1.2%.
Photo by STATEC
