March 17 (SeeNews) - Croatia's consumer prices rose by 1.5% year-on-year in February, slower than the anticipated 1.8% growth by analysts at Austria-based Erste banking group, Erste said on Tuesday.
"While on annual level higher food prices were the main reason behind accelerated Jan-Feb inflation footprint, going forward, we see outlook being increasingly shaped by the COVID-19 outbreak," the group said in an instant comment after Croatia's statistical office published the inflation data earlier on Tuesday.
It added that it has cut its 2020 average CPI forecast for Croatia to 0.8% from 1.2%, amid deflated oil prices and dented demand-side pressures, with risks looking balanced.
Croatia's consumer prices rose by 1.7% year-on-year in the first two months of 2020, after growing by an annual 2% in January alone.
On a monthly comparison basis, the February consumer price index (CPI) decreased by 0.3%, after falling by the same rate in January.
Erste said that the most pronounced monthly downside pressures came from lower transport prices amid a decrease in fuel price.
Croatia's average consumer price inflation slowed to 0.8% in 2019, from 1.5% in 2018.