Consumer Price Indices - Basic Information

The consumer price level rose by 0.5% month-on-month in May. This growth was brought about primarily by an increase in prices of food, public telecommunications services and automotive fuel. In terms of year-on-year comparison, the growth of consumer prices accelerated to 3.1% in May.

The month-on-month rise in the price level was influenced particularly by the increase in prices in ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’, which were affected mainly by the rise in prices of fresh vegetables by 10.7%, bread and cereals by 0.7% (of which bread by 2.6%), meat by 0.4% (of which pork by 1.8%). Prices of public telecommunications services went up by 5.9% due to the rise in lump fee for operation of residential telephone lines. Automotive fuel prices increased by 3.6% in May after the marked rise in the previous month. Prices in ‘alcoholic beverages, tobacco‘ rose by 0.7%, of which spirits and wine by 0.9%. In ‘recreation and culture‘, prices of package holidays increased by 1.0%; on the other hand, prices of equipment for the reception, recording and reproduction of pictures and sound dropped (-0.9%). In ‘health’, seasonal prices of stays at spas were higher by 10.1%.

In total, prices of goods rose by 0.2% and prices of services by 1.1%.

In terms of year-on-year comparison, consumer prices accelerated to 3.1% in May (the biggest increase since October 2004) after the three previous successive months, in which it constantly amounted to 2.8%. The growth of prices accelerated primarily in ‘communications‘ due to higher prices in public telecommunications services by 18.6% (from 12.0% in April). The year-on-year increase in prices speeded up also in ‘transport’ due to higher prices of automotive fuel by 10.4% (from 7.3%).

The drop in the price level was influenced mainly by the decrease in prices in ‘clothing and footwear‘, ‘furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house‘, and ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’. In food, especially prices of flour, poultry, fruit and sugar were markedly lower than in the previous year (-7.9%, -5.8%, -13.7% and -10.8%, respectively). On the other hand, prices of potatoes and fresh vegetables were markedly higher (81.2% and 14.1%, respectively).

The biggest effect (2.0 percentage points) on y-o-y increase in consumer prices in May belonged to ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’, in which prices of natural gas increased by 30.0%, electricity by 9.0%, heat and hot water by 12.0%. The share of ‘transport’ and ‘communications‘ strengthened by 0.1 percentage point and reached in both cases 0.4 percentage points.

In total, prices of goods went up (2.4%) as well as prices of services (4.5%).

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 stood at 2.4% in May, i.e. by 0.1 percentage point up on April 2006.

According to preliminary data of Eurostat, the year-on-year increase in the average harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) in the EU25 was 2.3% in April (0.2 percentage points up on March). Prices grew mostly in Latvia (6.1%), the least in Poland (1.2%). Growth of prices in Slovakia speeded up to 4.4% in April (from 4.3% in March). In Germany, the rise in prices accelerated to 2.3% (from 1.9% in March).

In the Czech Republic, the m-o-m increase was 0.5% in May and the y-o-y HICP growth reached 2.8%. According to the flash estimate published by Eurostat, the y-o-y HICP increase for the Euro-zone was 2.5% in May 2006.




Note
Contact: Marie Huskova, phone (+420) 274054104, e-mail: marie.huskova@csu.gov.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: 7103-06 Consumer Price Indices – Detailed Information (Internet: https://csu.gov.cz )