In October, consumer prices slowed year-on-year growth for the third time in a row, this time to 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in September. Inflation is mainly slowed down by movements in energy prices. On the contrary, people paid more for alcohol, tobacco products or meat, the Czech Statistical Office (CSO) informed. Inflation thus returned to the tolerance band set by the Czech National Bank.
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“Compared to last October, electricity prices slowed down to about five percent and natural gas prices fell by almost four percent,” said Pavla Šedivá, head of the CZSO’s consumer price statistics department. However, rents rose by two percent, water rents by 1.7 percent and sewerage by 1.5 percent.
Compared to September, consumer prices increased by 0.2 percent in October. Food and non-alcoholic beverages became more expensive. Prices of spirits increased by 5.6 percent and prices of beer by 4.2 percent. Tobacco products even rose by 14.1 percent.
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Fruits and vegetables also became significantly more expensive. “However, we can also observe good news on the market. Prices of semi-skimmed milk fell by 8.2 percent, egg prices fell by 4.4 percent and potato prices even fell by 18.5 percent. People will also save on the use of telecommunications services, “said Štěpán Křeček, Chief Economist at BH Securities.
Statisticians also published the balance of export and import prices for September. Export prices rose by 0.9 percent year on year, mainly due to higher prices of machinery and transport equipment. Import prices, which fell by 1.3 percent compared to last September, were affected by the persistently low prices of crude oil and petroleum products. On a month-on-month basis, the prices of exported and imported goods increased by 1.9 percent, due to the weakening of the koruna, said Vladimír Klimeš, head of the CZSO’s industry and foreign trade price statistics department.
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