Stats: Average Inflation for Whole of 2024 at 2.8 percent

Bratislava, January 15 (TASR) - The average inflation rate for the whole of 2024 amounted to 2.8 percent, falling below 3 percent following two years of extremely high double-digit figures, the Statistics Office reported on Wednesday. The year-on-year (y-o-y) pace of price growth slowed down at the most significant rate in the past 25 years, as annual inflation stood at 10.5 percent in 2023, and reached as high as 12.8 percent in 2022. Y-o-y price growth never exceeded 4 percent in a single month of 2024. Prices grew in all the 12 main categories of the consumer basket in 2024. Only a single sector, education, posted two-digit price growth of over 10 percent. Growth of over 5 percent was reported for three other segments - health, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and hotels and restaurants. However, the rate of price growth slowed down significantly in as many as 11 segments. The most significant impact on overall average y-o-y price growth was made by food, which went up by 2.5 percent. Price growth took place in eight of the nine monitored food categories, most notably in bread and cereals (4 percent), followed by fruit and vegetables (both more than 3 percent). Prices of oils and fats, a category with less weight in the consumer basket, grew most dynamically (by almost 9 percent), while sugar and confectionery prices rose by more than 5 percent. Only milk, cheese and eggs recorded a price drop, and only a slight one at that (0.2 percent). Meanwhile, prices in the segment of housing and energy had a dampening effect on overall inflation in 2024. This segment accounted for the biggest share in the spending of Slovak households, at one quarter, and prices within it grew by only 0.5 percent in 2024. The important prices of electricity and gas for households remained almost unchanged from 2023. ko/df