Analysts: Oil Spurred February Inflation, Further Acceleration in View
Bratislava, March 15 (TASR) – More expensive oil spurred inflation in Slovakia in February, with analysts expecting that this pace could even be accelerated in the next few months, TASR learnt on Monday.
According to the Statistics Office, consumer prices in Slovakia were up by 0.3 percent month-on-month and 0.9 percent year-on-year in February.
As a balancing effect to the oil spur, demand inflation somewhat decelerated in February following a rather counter-intuitive acceleration at the turn of the years, said UniCredit Bank analyst Lubomir Korsnak. He added that food prices were also countering inflation, as they were 0.4 percent higher due to traditional seasonal factors, but they were nevertheless below the usual levels.
The highest monthly inflation was seen in transport – up by 1.8 percent, followed by alcohol beverages and tobacco – by 0.7 percent, and education – by 0.5 percent. Clothing and footwear were down by 0.3 percent month-on-month.
Wood & Company analyst Eva Sadovska, who also pointed to tax hikes for alcohol and tobacco in February as another factor, noted that annual inflation should gradually get over 1 percent and come close to 2 percent in the second half of 2021.
