January 24 (SeeNews) - Croatia's annual inflation rate has likely reached a peak in December and would fall further as food and energy prices have started to decrease, according to central bank governor Boris Vujcic, local media reported on Tuesday.
“We have to wait for the official figures but in the first two weeks of January energy and food prices were lower on an annual comparison basis,” the Poslovni Dnevnik daily quoted Vujcic as saying on Monday in comments on the country's switch to the euro currency.
Croatia, which joined the euro area on January 1, saw annual inflation easing to 13.1% in December, from 13.5% on November.
“In Croatia the inflation trend is similar to that in the eurozone but at a bit higher level. Although it follows the trend in the eurozone, inflation is Croatia is higher in line with inflation in East European countries in which GDP per capita is lower and food and energy have higher impact,” Vujcic told reporters before a seminar on Croatia's switch to euro organised in Zagreb by the European Commission on Monday.
Croatia's timing to enter the eurozone was good regardless of inflation, Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission, said during the commission's seminar, Poslovni reported.
"Inflation in the eurozone is around 10%. In Croatia we see inflation's trend and developments similar to what happens in the Eurozone and in Croatia the inflation is lower than in central European countries which have not switched to euro," Dombrovskis said during a news conference on Monday, as seen in a file published on the government's website.