Inflation – Malta registers 4.2% rate in July

Malta had one of the Euro area's lowest annual inflation rates for July, at 4.2% when compared to June.

Euro area annual inflation was 2.4% in July 2012, stable compared to June. A year earlier the rate was 2.6%. Monthly inflation was -0.5% in July 2012.

EU annual inflation was 2.5% in July 2012, also stable compared to June. A year earlier the rate was 2.9%. Monthly inflation was -0.4% in July 2012.

In July, Malta's harmonized index of consumer prices went down to 121.92 from 122.24 in June.

The HICP went down by 0.3 per cent over the previous month. This primarily reflected a seasonal drop of 10.3 per cent in the clothing and footwear Index, due to lower prices of garments. Seasonally cheaper fruits were the main cause behind a decline of 0.8 per cent in the food and beverages Index. The communication Index registered a decrease of 0.4 per cent, mainly on account of lower-priced mobile phones. The transport index went down by 0.2 per cent, mainly due to a decrease in the price of fuels. A downward movement in the prices of travel articles caused the miscellaneous goods and services Index to edge down by 0.1 per cent.

The restaurants and hotels Index registered an increase of 1.7 per cent due to higher prices of accommodation services. Higher-priced package holidays underlay an increase of 0.9 per cent in the recreation and culture index. The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index increased by 0.7 per cent, mainly due to costlier services for the maintenance and repair of dwellings.

Higher fees charged for repair services caused the furniture, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house Index to go up by 0.3 per cent. The alcoholic beverages and tobacco index rose by 0.2 per cent, mainly on account of higher prices of wine.

Inflation rate

In July the twelve-month moving average rate of inflation stood at 2.8 per cent, whereas the annual rate of inflation stood at 4.2 per cent.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In July 2012, the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (0.7%), Greece (0.9%), Germany and Latvia (both 1.9%), and the highest in Hungary (5.7%), Malta (4.2%) and Estonia (4.1%). Compared with June 2012, annual inflation fell in twelve Member States, remained stable in one and rose in fourteen.

The lowest 12-month averages4 up to July 2012 were registered in Sweden (1.0%), Ireland (1.6%) and Greece (1.8%), and the highest in Hungary (4.9%), Estonia (4.6%) and Slovakia (4.1%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in July 2012 were alcohol & tobacco (4.7%), housing (3.8%) and transport (3.2%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-3.1%), education (0.7%) and recreation & culture (1.0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport ( 0.13 percentage points), electricity and gas ( 0.10 each) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications
(-0.18) and cars (-0.06) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (1.6%), hotels & restaurants (1.3%) and health (0.9%), while the lowest monthly rates were observed for clothing (-13.4%), communications (-0.8%) and household equipment (-0.7%) In particular, package holidays ( 0.18 percentage points), accommodation services ( 0.12) and air transport ( 0.08) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.74), footwear (-0.16) and fruit (-0.05) had the biggest downward impacts.