February inflation rises to 1.9%

In February 2025, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) was 1.9 per cent, up from 1.4 per cent in January 2025.

The Retail Price Index is one of two indicators of inflation used in Malta. While the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HCIP) is measured across Europe, and provides a comparable view of inflation across the continent, the RPI is a local measure used to calculate the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

Price changes and effects on inflation

The highest annual inflation rates in February 2025 were registered in other goods and services (3.8 per cent) and beverages and tobacco (3.4 per cent).

On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in water, electricity, gas and fuels (0.0 per cent) and housing (0.3 per cent).

In February 2025, the largest upward contribution to the overall annual inflation rate was registered in the food index (+0.51 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of restaurant services.

The second and third largest contributions were measured in the other goods and services index (+0.28 percentage points) and the personal care and health index (+0.27 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of jewellery and hygienic articles, respectively.

No downward contributions to the overall annual inflation were registered in the aggregates of the 10 groups presented for the month of February.

Aggregates

In February 2025, the other goods and services index registered the highest annual inflation rate at 3.8 per cent, of which jewellery, watches and other articles registered an annual rate of 14.0 per cent, non-durable household goods registered an annual rate of 2.2 per cent, veterinary services (including pet food) and domestic services registered an annual rate of 0.9 per cent, and insurances, financial services and other services registered an annual rate of 2.7 per cent.

The water, electricity, gas and fuels Index registered the lowest annual inflation rate of 0.0 per cent, since the prices of all subcomponents remained unchanged (Tables 1 and 3).