Croatia's industrial producer prices increased by 14.9% in December 2022 compared with the same month in 2021, continuing their annual rise for 22 straight months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS). 

Industrial producer prices have been steadily on the rise since March 2021, when they rose at an annual rate of 3.5%. Their growth rate intensified in the following months to reach 19.5% in March 2022, 21.9% in April, 23.7% in May and 24% in June 2022, the record growth rate since 2011 when DZS started tracking the data.

The growth rate then slowed down slightly to 23.6% in July, 22.6% in August, 22.1% in September and 17.9% in October 2022. In December 2022, industrial producer prices were down 2.1% from the previous month.

The increase in prices was mainly fuelled by energy prices. In December 2022, prices in total industry excluding energy increased by 0.4% from November 2022 and by 9.7% from December 2021.

On the external market, industrial producer prices were down by 1.3% compared with November 2022 and up by 8.8% compared with December 2021. On the domestic market, prices were 2.6% lower than in November 2022 and 19.9% higher than in December 2021.

On the domestic market, compared with December 2021, producer prices of energy rose by 43.5%, prices of non-durable consumer goods went up by 14.5%, durable consumer goods by 12.5%, intermediate goods by 9.2% and capital goods by 5.9%.

Compared with November 2022, producer prices of non-durable consumer goods increased by 1.7% and capital goods by 0.1%, while prices of energy fell by 9.2% and intermediate goods by 0.3%. Prices of durable consumer goods remained stable.