Consumer Price Indices - Basic Information
Commentary | Contents |
The month-on-month consumer prices level remained unchanged in total. Prices went up in ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’ and ‘alcoholic beverages, tobacco’ on the one hand, and lower prices in ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ and ‘recreation and culture’ on the other hand. The growing prices of food were mainly caused by a rise in prices of fruit (+1.7%) and bread and cereals (+1.0%), where the rising trend seen for several months continued, after a one-off moderate drop in March. Prices of butter, oils and coffee went up slightly. The increase in prices of potatoes (+1.9%) and pork (+1.3%) continued, while prices of beef, smoked goods and poultry went moderately down. Prices of eggs, cheese and sugar were lower too. The increase in excise duty on tobacco products, the prices of which rose by 1.1%, showed partially itself in April for the first time since January 2004. The drop in prices of ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ was due to lower prices of natural gas (-3.4%). A fall in off-season prices of domestic recreation had a reducing effect on prices (like in April 2003). In ‘transport’, the rise in prices of automotive fuel (+0.9%, after a considerable growth in March) was eliminated by lower prices of used cars (-1.9%). In total, prices of goods fell by 0.1%, while prices of services remained unchanged.
In terms of year-on-year comparison, the growth of consumer prices slowed down from 2.5% in March to 2.3% in April. The year-on-year slowdown occurred particularly in ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’, where prices of natural gas recorded a decrease of 3.5% in April (as against increase 7.9% in March). The change in trend was observed for prices of automotive fuel (-0.4% in March and +2.0% in April). April 2004 saw the highest prices of diesel oil since August 2001. Acceleration of year-on-year growth was recorded also for ‘alcoholic beverages, tobacco’, due to an increase in prices of cigarettes (+1.1%h). Except for ‘communications’, where the price increase continued owing to higher VAT on public telecommunication services imposed in January 2004, the highest price increase was reported for ‘food and non-alcohol beverages’. Particularly prices of bread and cereals (+12.8%), meat (+3.8%), milk, cheese eggs (+6.1% on average), oils and fats (+5.1%), and potatoes (+69.7%) grew. Mainly prices of fish, fruit and fresh vegetables were lower. The long-term trend of falling prices of clothing and footwear, household appliances, mobile phones, equipment for the reception, recording and reproduction of sound and pictures continued. In total, prices of goods went up by 1.2% and prices of services by 4.0%.
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, amounted to 1.0% in April (i.e. 0.2 percentage points more than in March).
According to preliminary Eurostat’s data, the average increase in the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) in the EU Member States in March 2004 reached 1.5% year-on-year (like in February). Slightly lower or the same year-on-year growth rates as in February were observed in most of the EU Member States. In Acceding Countries, a tendency of moderate acceleration or stabilization of the price development was prevailing. There was a 2.1% y-o-y increase in HICP in the Czech Republic (as against 2.0% in both January and February). According to a flash estimate, the y-o-y HICP for the Euro-zone in April 2004 was 2.0% according to Eurostat.
Note
Contact: Marie Huskova, phone (+420) 274054104, 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: 7101-04 Consumer Price Indices – Basic Information; 7103-04 Consumer Price Indices – Detailed Information (Internet: https://csu.gov.cz )