In February 2019 consumer prices in Croatia inched up 0.2 percent from January, and 0.5 percent from the same month a year ago, the country's state statistics bureau reported, indicating accelerated rate of increase, from 0.2 percent year-on-year in January.

By component, the largest year-on-year price increase was in alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which rose by 4.6 percent, followed by prices of housing, utilities, and fuels, which rose by 2.9 percent, analysts of the Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said in their report on Friday.

On the other hand, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages dropped 0.8 percent year-on-year, and prices of transport 0.5 percent. The former is attributed to lower VAT rates, cut from 25 to 13 percent for some food products, rolled out in January this year. The continuing fall in transport prices came as a result of lower prices of crude oil in the global markets.

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