Credit: Statec
On Wednesday 5 October 2022, Luxembourg's national statistics office, STATEC, announced that, in September 2022, the national consumer price index (calculated by STATEC) shows a monthly increase of 0.3%; this trend is explained by the increase in the price of petroleum products by 2.3% in one month.
The main monthly outlays on the rise include diesel, heating oil, fresh vegetables, residential rents, cleaning and maintenance products, as well as other medical products. On the other hand, package travel, passenger transport by air, fresh fruit, beer, financial services and petrol contributed to its decline.
After two months of consecutive declines, petroleum products are on the rise again for the month of September. Their prices increased by 2.3% in monthly variation. At the pump, motorists pay an average of 6.0% more for a litre of diesel, while a litre of petrol decreased by 1.0%. For households that have filled their central heating tank, bills have increased by 7.1% compared to August. Compared to September of the previous year, the prices of "black gold" (oil) derivatives are 37.4% higher.
The prices of food products remain dynamic and increased by 0.7% in a monthly comparison. Fresh vegetables (+12.3%), eggs (+4.5%) and butter (+2.0%) weighed the most on this trend. On the decrease side, fresh fruit (-2.3%), chocolate (-1.8%), breakfast cereals (-1.7%) and pasta and couscous (-1.6%) stand out. In annual comparison, food prices are 9.2% higher.
In addition, inflation is boosted this month by a rise in the prices of residential rents (+0.5%) and cleaning and maintenance products (+1.8%). Price increases were also noted in September for postal services (+22%). On the other hand, various price drops were noted for the prices of jewellery and watches (-2.8%) and for the prices of nurseries and day centres for children, which fell by 0.7% compared to the previous month.
Travel costs contributed to the monthly result decreasing the most. Package travel prices fell by 9.4% and those of plane tickets by 30.5% compared to August due to the end-of-school holidays.
The annual inflation rate stands at 6.9% against 6.8% the previous month. The underlying annual inflation rate gained 0.1 points and stood at 5.2% in September. The general index for the month of September expressed in base 100 in 2015 amounts to 117.00 points. The half-yearly average of the index connected to the 1 January 1948 base rose from 954.51 to 957.56 points. The next indexing will be triggered when the value of 964.64 is reached.
