The inflation rate reached 2.8% in June, down 0.1 percentage point from May. However, consumer prices are still high and threaten to rise by the end of the year.
“Inflation will accelerate further in the coming months; growth above the level of three percent cannot be ruled out on a temporary basis,” said economist Lukáš Kovanda.
This was also confirmed by economist Štěpán Křeček: “The current pace of price increases will not slow down at least until the end of this year. This will adversely affect households whose incomes are not growing or even falling.”
The wave of price increases is currently mostly related to fuels, but also to alcohol, tobacco, clothing and footwear. Housing costs are rising, as are the prices of materials and raw materials.
According to Kovanda, it is currently more common to raise the price of services than goods because people are trying to catch up. For the same reason, water also became more expensive.
“Paradoxically, water is becoming more expensive because its consumption was reduced due to a pandemic last year, so water companies have to make up for the shortfall in sales by raising prices in order to have the necessary investments,” Kovanda explained.
Economists expect the price increase to continue. “The growing risk for even faster price growth in the next period is currently posed by sharply rising emission allowances and the associated threat of a significant increase in electricity prices.
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