February 6 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's annual consumer prices expanded by 1.3% in January, following a year-on-year growth of 0.5% a month earlier, the statistical office said on Monday.
In January, the largest upward push to annual inflation, of 0.8 of a percentage point, came from higher prices of petroleum products, the statistical office said in a monthly inflation report.
In addition, 0.2 p.p. was contributed by 27.3% higher prices of fresh vegetables, and 0.1 p.p. each by higher prices of fresh fruit (by 4.9%), wireless telephone services (by 3.8%) and other services not elsewhere classified (by 10.9%).
On the other hand, the annual inflation was pushed down by 0.2 p.p. by lower prices of second-hand motor cars (down 9.3%). Lower prices of heat energy (by 12.3%), garments (down 3.0%) and package holidays (down 2.7%) added 0.1 p.p. each.
On a monthly comparison basis, consumer prices fell 0.6% in January, after dropping by 0.5% in December, the data indicated.
The monthly deflation was mostly due to seasonal discounts on clothing and footwear prices. Prices of garments lowered the inflation rate by 0.7 p.p. Additional 0.3 p.p. were cut by cheaper footwear (by 12.1%) and 0.1 p.p. each by lower prices of passenger transport by air (by 27.6%), equipment for sport (by 13.6%) and package international holidays (by 9.3%).
On the other hand, the biggest upward push (by 0.2 p.p.) on monthly inflation came from the increase in petrol prices (by 5.8%), followed by higher prices of fresh vegetables (by 17.6%), liquid fuels (by 10.2%), diesel (by 6.0%) and package domestic holidays (by 5.1%) which added 0.1 p.p. each.
Measured with the harmonised index of consumer prices, in January 2017 the annual growth of consumer prices in Slovenia was 1.5%.
Slovenia posted an annual inflation of 0.5% in 2016, reversing a deflation by the same margin in 2015.