January the 9th, 2025 – Croatian prices are a topic as old as time at this point, but the fact that they’re the fastest growing in the entire EU is of deep concern.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the annual inflation rate across the Eurozone stood at 2.4% in December 2024 according to the Harmonised Index of Prices (HICP). Preliminary calculations by the European Statistical Office also revealed the above.
Inflation therefore accelerated at the end of the year for the third month in a row. The trend of mild price growth was interrupted in October, when prices rose by 2.0 percent. By the time November rolled around, their growth had accelerated, according to revised data, to 2.2 percent.
The strongest increase in prices last month was seen in the service industry, by four percent, slightly more than in the month before. Fresh food was also 1.7 percent more expensive than the previous year, statisticians found, with a significantly milder price increase than in November.
Energy prices, however, rose slightly in December, by 0.1 percent compared to the same month in 2023. They fell by two percent in November, by 4.6 percent in October and by 6.1 percent in September.
Excluding energy and fresh food, prices across the Eurozone were 2.8 percent higher in December than in the same month last year, Eurostat calculated. This means that the core inflation rate was only slightly higher than in November.
On a monthly basis, prices in the Eurozone rose by 0.4 percent in December 2024, after falling by 0.3 percent in the previous month.
croatian prices are growing the most rapidly, as are those in belgium
Then we come to Croatian prices, and we can see that they’re growing incredibly quickly on the EU scale. By far the highest annual price increase, measured by the HICP, was recorded in Croatia in December, by 4.5 percent. In November, they had risen by 4.0 percent.
On a monthly basis, Croatian prices increased by 0.2 percent after stagnating in November, that put them among the most concerning in the entire EU.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) index shows that consumer prices in December 2024 were 3.4 percent higher than in the same month back in 2023. On a monthly basis, they increased by 0.1 percent, according to CBS calculations.
Belgium is close to Croatian prices when measured by the HICP in December 2024 compared to December 2023. In Belgium, they increased by 4.4 percent. Estonia also slightly exceeded the 4.0 percent mark.
By far the mildest price growth in the entire Eurozone was recorded by Ireland at the end of last year, where prices only increased by one percent. Ireland is followed by Italy and Luxembourg, where prices increased by 1.4 and 1.6 percent, respectively, according to Eurostat data.
