Petrol, cigars, vegetables and electricity raised consumer prices in January

Annual inflation recorded a 1% increase in January, according to the statistics of changes in consumer prices prepared by Statistics Finland.

Consumer prices were raised most in January by increases in the prices of petrol, cigars, vegetables and electricity from one year ago.

In turn, the rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of package international holidays within the EU, average interest rate on housing loans, mobile phones and televisions.

From December to January, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was -0.3 per cent, which was caused by lower prices of seasonal clothing and international flights. Undoubtedly, this mild winter has influenced the development of cold clothing prices.

Source: Statistics Finland.

In order to produce these figures, each mid-month Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 33,000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from approximately 2,500 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. The price data is supplemented with scanner data from 4 million individual prices. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.

Price Index and the weight structure were updated at the beginning of January. Men’s and women’s sports shirts were added to the commodity basket. In addition, the usage of total data was expanded with fresh products, soft and alcoholic drinks, cleaning and maintenance products and personal hygiene products.

According to the preliminary data on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the rate of inflation in the euro area was 1.4% in January. In December, it stood at 1.3 per cent. The corresponding figure for Finland was 1.2 per cent in January.