In the Czech Republic, according to the so-called harmonized index of consumer prices, annual inflation was 3.1 percent in August, which is 0.1 percentage point below the average of the entire 28.
–
Without this harmonization, which is being made so that individual countries can be compared, consumer prices in the Czech Republic rose by 4.1 percent year on year in August.
–
“The harmonized European index uses a single consumer basket for the entire Union, which differs from the CZSO consumer basket. Among other things, it does not include imputed rent, ”Petr Bartoň, an economist at the Natland Group, told Novinky.
–
For the first time, inflation in the EU has significantly exceeded the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target. It intends to keep price growth at two percent per year.
–
Last week, in response to current developments, central bankers announced that they would slow down bond purchases in an effort to boost economic growth.
–
The current situation across the EU and in the euro area is markedly different from a year ago, when the first wave of the pandemic hit the economy hard. In the EU, prices rose by 0.4 percent year on year last August, while in the euro area they even fell by 0.2 percent.
–
Malta had the lowest inflation, at 0.4 percent. In Greece, prices rose by 1.2 percent year on year and in Portugal by 1.3 percent. On the other hand, prices grew the fastest in Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, where the inflation rate reached the same five percent.
—
