According to a Wednesday report by the Czech Statistical Office, consumer prices rose by two percent in March compared to the previous month. Prices increase by 0.1 percent every month.
In comparison to last March, people had to pay more, especially for housing, food, and accommodation. The prices of goods in March increased year-on-year by 0.1 percent, and services became more expensive by 5.4 percent.
“The only section where prices fell year-on-year was the food and non-alcoholic beverages section, by about six percent,” said Pavla Šedivá, head of the consumer price statistics department at the CSO.
According to statisticians, the month-on-month price increase was due to the increased cost of transport, including the increased price of motorway stickers in March. In a year-on-year comparison, the toll sticker fee increased by 53.3 percent.
“In March, the biggest impact on the year-on-year decrease in the overall price level was the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, where prices fell, for example, poultry meat by 16.4 percent, semi-skimmed long-life milk by 26.6 percent, eggs by 27.7 percent, and sugar by 22.2 percent,” the report stated.
“We can probably already say that inflation has stabilized around the two percent target of the Czech National Bank (CNB) after a wild two-year period. And that’s even faster than expected at the end of last year,” commented economist Daniel Janeček from PwC.