Annual inflation in Croatia, measured by the Consumer Price Index, slowed down to 7.7% in June 2023, decreasing for seven months in a row and reaching its lowest rate since March 2022.

The Croatian state statistics bureau (DZS) on Friday released its initial estimate of the Consumer Price Index, according to which the inflation rate fell to 7.7% in June 2023 compared with June 2022 and increased by 0.9% compared with May 2023.

The annual inflation rate has decreased for seven straight months, after hitting a record high of 13.5% in November 2022. Then its growth started to decelerate to 13.1% in December, 12.7% in January, 12.0% in February, 10.7% in March, 8.9% in April and 7.9% in May.

Broken down by the main components of the index, the estimated annual inflation rate was 13.6% for food, beverages and tobacco, 8.1% for industrial non-food products without energy, and 7.6% for services. The inflation rate for energy declined by 3.3%.

Compared with May 2023, the prices of food, beverages, tobacco, and energy rose by 1.4% each and those of services increased by 1.2%, while the prices of industrial non-food products without energy fell by 0.1%.