The rate of inflation in the Czech Republic continues to slow down, reaching 15% in March, according to the Czech Statistical Office (CSU). This is a drop of 1.7 percentage points from February, making it the lowest year-on-year inflation rate since April 2021. Inflation rose by 0.1% month-on-month in March, compared to 0.5% in February.
Pavla Šedivá, Head of the Consumer Price Statistics Department at the CSU, explained that most of the slowing down of inflation are due to the higher comparison base from last year. However, transport prices dropped year-on-year, mainly due to falling fuel prices.
The decline in inflation is mainly due to the decrease in fuel and oil prices, which fell by 19%. In the housing sector, the growth in natural gas prices slowed down (+60% compared to 74.3% in February). In contrast, rent prices increased by 6.7%, while prices for products and services for the maintenance of apartments increased by 16.4%. Water prices increased by 16.3%, wastewater prices by 30.3%, electricity by 29.6%, solid fuels by 53.7%, and heat and hot water by 44.6%.
Food prices also increased significantly year-on-year, with rice up by 32.9%, flour by 32.6%, pork by 34%, semi-skimmed long-life milk by 45.2%, eggs by 75.5%, and sugar by 97.6%. Meanwhile, the prices of comprehensive holiday packages rose by 24.6%, while goods and services increased by 17% and 11.7%, respectively.
In March, vegetables rose by 5%, and pork and semi-skimmed long-life milk prices also increased. However, the prices of eggs fell by almost a tenth, while butter prices decreased by 6.3%.
The current inflation rate in the Czech Republic is still high but has slowed down for the second consecutive month. The main factors affecting inflation are the comparison base and the prices of goods and services, especially housing and food prices.