Croatia's consumer prices index in March 2022 was 7.3 percent up year-on-year, state agency Hina said, copying a report released by the state statistics bureau released on their website on Friday.

This is the highest inflation rate since the summer of 2008. Compared to February 2022, consumer prices were 2.1 percent higher on average. In Q1 2022, consumer prices were on average 6.4 percent higher than in Q1 2021.

Food prices, which also include prices of non-alcoholic beverages and which account for one quarter of the market basket, have increased by 10.3 percent year-on-year, contributing the most to the annual index growth rate (+2.8% percent.

As expected, transport prices grew the most, by 14.4 percent, primarily due to rising fuel prices, contributing 2.12 percentage points to the index growth rate, while prices of accommodation, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 3.8 percent, contributing 0.64 pp.

Compared to February, prices of clothing and footwear grew the most (+12.2 percent), followed by transport prices (+5.3 percent), and restaurant and hotel prices (+1.8 percent).

The inflationary pressure caused by energy and food price growth has grown stronger due to current geopolitical conflicts and the uncertainty regarding their duration and outcome, and even though the government has taken certain steps to alleviate the impact of rising energy prices on consumers, a direct spillover effect of rising energy and food prices on global markets is inevitable, analysts from Raiffeisen Bank said in their comments on the report.