Consumer Price Indices - Basic Information
Commentary | Contents |
Average year-on-year inflation rate only 0.1% in 2003
Consumer Price Indices – December 2003
The month-on-month increase (0.2%) in the price level was due to food prices, which kept on rising for the fourth month. In other divisions of the consumer basket price fluctuations were minimal. The growth in food prices (+1.5%) was influenced mainly by an increase in prices of fruit +11.1%, fresh vegetables +9.4%, potatoes +5.8%, eggs +9.5%, and bread and cereals +1.2%. The rise in prices of milk (+1.0%) and sugar (+2.2%) continued. Prices of meat went -1.0% down (of which prices of pork dropped –3.0%). In ‘transport’, the decrease in prices of automotive fuels continued the third month (-0.7%). Prices of goods went 0.4% up, while prices of services remained unchanged.
Compared year-on-year, the level of consumer prices increased 1.0%, although the changes in the consumer prices level had a decreasing tendency or stagnated. The development was predominantly affected by the acceleration in the rise in food prices in the third quarter of 2003, which was brought about by the increase in prices of bread +7.4%, rolls and bagels +30.4%, pork +4.4%, poultry +8.3%, eggs +35.5%, butter+10.7%, potatoes +80.5%, fresh vegetables +9.5%. ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ became the division with the strongest year-on-year growth rate in the whole consumer basket at the end of the year 2003 after a long-term year-on-year price drop (since June 2002). Prices of goods in total went +0.4% up and prices of services +2.1%. In the services, financial services, insurance, therapeutic stays at spas, and refuse collection recorded a marked rise (+34.9%, +7.3%, +7.2%, and +8.3%, respectively).
Inflation rate, i.e. an increase in the average consumer price index for last 12 months related to the average CPI for the preceding 12 months was primarily due to the drop in prices in ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’, which were –2.2% down (the average of 2003), in spite of their accelerated growth at the end of the year 2003. Lower were mainly prices of sugar (-12.9%), pork (-9.7%), coffee (-9.2%), poultry (-6.5%), milk (-6.6%), smoked sausages (-4.6%), cheese (-4.0%), and fresh vegetables (-3.8%). Higher were predominantly prices of baked goods (+4.7%), butter (+3.2%), eggs (+3.2%), and fruit (+1.5%). Year-on-year drop in prices continued in ‘clothing and footwear’ and ‘furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house’. Lower were prices of mobile phones and telecommunication services, too. The rise in the level of consumer prices was predominantly influenced by prices of dwelling (due to their weight in the consumer basket), although the price increase slowed down mainly due to the drop in prices of electricity -4.8% and the growth in prices of natural gas only +1.1%. The rise in prices in ‘health’ was primarily affected by the increase in prices of therapeutic stays at spas. In ’miscellaneous goods and services’, especially the financial services and insurance went up (+30.0% and +7.9%, respectively).
Prices of goods went –1.4% down, while prices of services went +2.9% up. The rise both in the market prices (from 0.9% in 2002 to zero growth in 2003) and in regulated prices (from 5.6% in 2002 to 0.6% in 2003) slowed down.
According to preliminary data, the average harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) in the EU Member States in November 2003 grew 2.0% year-on-year and was 0.2 percentage points up on October. Most of the EU Member States registered an accelerated year-on-year growth. The analogous development was recorded for the most of the Acceding Countries. The year-on-year increase in HICP rose 0.9% in the Czech Republic (from 0.5% in October).
Note
Contact: Marie Huskova, phone (+420) 266107779, e-mail: huskova@gw.czso.cz
Data source: CZSO survey
End of data collection: 20th day of the reference month
End of data processing: 3rd day of the month that follows each reference month
The data are final.
Related publications: 7101-03 Consumer Price Indices – Basic Information; 7103-03 Consumer Price Indices – Detailed Information (Internet: https://csu.gov.cz )