March the 5th, 2026 – Croatian price growth is still a burning topic as it remains among the EU’s highest, jumping to 3.8% in February.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian price growth is still a huge issue, remaining among the EU’s leading countries. The prices of goods and services for personal consumption (measured by the consumer price index, and according to the first estimate) were on average 3.8% higher in February 2026 compared to February 2025.
They’re also 0.3 percent higher compared to just one month before it in January 2026, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced on Tuesday. Eurostat’s latest data also shows that only Slovakia’s inflation rate is higher than Croatia’s when taking just Eurozone countries into account.
Inflation accelerated compared to January, when it amounted to 3.4%, and compared to December, from 3.3%. It then returned to the levels recorded back in November 2025, when, just as it was in February 2026, amounted to 3.8%.
Observed by the main components of the index itself, services increased in price by a concerning 7.7% on an annual basis in February, energy by 4.3%, and food, beverages and tobacco by 3.6% respectively. At the same time, industrial non-food products excluding energy fell by 0.1%, which is a drop so small that it is barely worth mentioning.
On a monthly basis compared to January, energy prices increased by 1.4%, services by 0.5%, and food, beverages and tobacco by 0.2%, while a price drop of 0.6% was estimated for industrial non-food products excluding energy.
Croatian prices of goods and services for personal consumption, measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), according to the first estimate in February 2026 compared to February 2025, were on average 3.9% higher, while compared to January they were 0.3% higher.
As touched on above, only Slovakia experienced higher inflation than Croatia when looking solely at Eurozone countries when measured by the HICP in February. Slovakia’s inflation rate stood at 4% according to Eurostat data.
The final data on the consumer price index for February will only be published on March 17th.
