According to a preliminary estimate, prices of goods and services for personal consumption, measured by the consumer price index, were in January 2023 12.7% higher than in January 2022, and compared to December 2022, they have stayed the same, the Croatian state statistics bureau (DZS) said on Wednesday.

The estimated year-on-year inflation rate for food, drinks and tobacco is 15.4%, for energy it stands at 13.8%, for industrial non-food products without energy at 12.1%, and for services 9.3%.

Compared to December 2022, prices of food, drinks and tobacco have gone up by 1.3%, prices of services are 1.1% higher, while prices of industrial non-food products, not including energy, have dropped by 2.1% and those of energy by 1%.

The DZS said that final data on the consumer price index in January, according to the European Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose, will be published on 23 February.

More accurate and more precise data will be known then and they will show if the slowdown in consumer price growth, suggested by the preliminary estimate, has continued. A slowdown in consumer price growth was recorded also in December 2022, when consumer prices grew 13.1% year-on-year while in November 2022 year-on-year inflation was at a record high 13.5%.

Following Croatia’s entry to the euro area on 1 January 2023 and in line with the relevant EU regulation, the DZS will calculate and regularly forward its preliminary estimate of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices to Eurostat on a monthly basis, and Eurostat publishes its initial estimate for the euro area.

The DZS will publish its preliminary estimate of the national consumer price index in its monthly report.