Consumer prices rose by 0.7% in May compared to April according to the latest figures from the Czech Statistical office. The annual rate is now 2.9% up 0.1 from April. Increases were particularly noticeable in vegetables, fruit and alcoholic beverages. There were also spikes in the cost of apartment rents and electricity. Photo credit: Pixabay.
Food and Drink
Brno, Jun 14 (BD) – Vegetable prices by 6.2% in the month, with potatoes increasing over 11%; fruit rose by 7% and meat by 2.4%. Rises were also seen in the prices of spirits (+4.6%) and beer (+3.9%). Although some of the changes can be seen as seasonal reactions to April’s figures, the year on year (YOY) figure of +2.9% (+0.1 on April’s rate) indicates an upward trend. Potatoes are now 88.4% more expensive than a year ago, meat +2.2%, alcoholic beverages and tobacco +2.8%.
A Bloomberg analysis of the cost of the classic pork, cabbage and dumpling dish shows that the cost has risen from 110 crowns to over 130 in the last 3 years.
Non-food
The rate of increase in transport costs fell YOY to 3.1% (4.7%) mainly due to fluctuations in fuel prices. Apartment rents increased by 3.3% on the year before and electricity by 12.5%.
In the other direction, there were actual falls in the cost of clothing YOY (-3.1%) and communications (-1.3%)
The latest EU average for April was an annual increase of 1.9%; this compares with 2.4% for the Czech Republic.
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