Inflation measured in a harmonized manner in the EU was lower than national inflation in 2022, reached the value 12.1%

Price growth in Slovakia, measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP), reached an average of 12.1% for the whole year 2022. Year-on-year price growth peaked in the last months of the year, December annual harmonized inflation reached 15%.

The average annual rate of HICP inflation for 2022 (the average of the harmonized indices of consumer prices over the last 12 months compared to the average of the previous 12 months) reached a value of 12.1%. It is the second highest value of HICP inflation since 2000, when it was 12.2%. The average annual HICP inflation rate is an important indicator of a country’s price stability, its level is also considered as one of the four so-called Maastricht criteria that an EU Member State must meet before the introduction of the euro common currency.

Following the European harmonized methodology, consumer prices in December 2022 rose by 15.0% year-on-year, in November 2022 this value was 15.1%.

In December 2022, the harmonized indices of consumer prices increased by 0.1% month-on-month, which was the lowest value among all months of the year. Similar to previous months, the month-on-month increase in the price level was most affected by the increase in prices in the Food and non-alcoholic beverages division, the positive contribution of this division represented +0.25 percentage points of the total month-on-month inflation. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels division had the second most significant influence (+0.09 p.p.) on price growth in December compared to November. The third highest contribution to month-on-month inflation was recorded in the division of Furniture, furnishings and general household maintenance (+0.06 p.p.). On the contrary, the month-on-month inflation was reduced the most by the decrease in prices in the Transport division (negative contribution -0.39 p.p.), mainly due to the decrease in fuel prices.