Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday that the latest data on inflation in November were a clear indicator of a trend of its slowing down.

According to a flash estimate by the national statistical office published earlier in the day, the inflation rate in November 2023 was 4.7% compared to November 2022, while compared to the previous month prices of goods and services dropped by 0.2%. This is a significant deceleration of the growth of consumer prices on the annual level, considering that inflation in October 2023 stood at 5.8%, in September at 6.6% and in August at 7.8%.

The 4.7% inflation rate is the lowest since October 2021, when it stood at 3.8%.

“This is a clear trend of the slowing down of inflation,” Plenkovic said at the start of a government session, repeating that the November 2023 inflation rate was the lowest in the last two years.

He said that this was also owing to the government’s fifth package of anti-inflation aid measures for households.

The Eurostat on Thursday published an estimate of inflation in the euro area in November, according to the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) (the domestic index is the Consumer Price Index).

According to the HICP, the annual inflation rate in Croatia in November 2023 is 5.5% and Croatia has the second highest inflation rate in the euro area, after Slovakia, which has a rate of 6.9%.

ASF is ‘under control’

Commenting on the situation with African Swine Fever (ASF), Plenkovic said that the situation is under control and the infection has been waning owing to the measures that are being taken and that are based on science and professional standards.

A meeting will be held today at the Agriculture Ministry with all representatives of pig farmers to discuss the measures taken so far as well as subsidies, and to listen to additional proposals from the sector, he said.

Plenkovic noted that without the measures designed to combat ASF most of the pig stock in Croatia would have been jeopardised.

At the same time, more than €30 million worth of aid has been allocated to pig farmers as compensation for the damage caused by the disease and to help them recover, he said.

He announced two new measures – one-off aid for the purchase of pig half-carcasses to secure a one-off payment of up to €600 per operator and a programme of state support for breeders of pigs of heavier slaughter weights to enable the allocation of support for compensation for the loss of income for pigs of heavier slaughter weights sent for slaughter from facilities in restriction zones in the period from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2023.

The measure for the purchase of pig half-carcasses will enable the preservation of traditional pig slaughter and help households that cover part of their needs for meat that way, he said.

Croatia’s GDP growing fastest in EU

Speaking of the national statistical office’s flash estimate showing that in Q3 2023 GDP grew in real terms by 2.8% compared to the same period of 2022, Plenkovic said that compared to the current data for 23 EU countries, Croatia recorded the highest rate of GDP growth in Q3.

“Croatian businesses and workers have contributed to that as have strong government interventions made in the context of numerous crises,” said the PM.