Inflation gap between Malta and eurozone average widens

In June, Malta’s rate of inflation registered a meagre drop of 0.1 percentage points to 6.2 per cent while the eurozone average fell by 0.6 percentage points to 5.5 per cent, widening the gap.

The 12-month moving average for inflation for Malta stood at 6.9 per cent for the third month in a row.

As of June, Slovakia was the only country which remained with a double-digit level of inflation (11.3 per cent). The biggest drop in inflation was registered in Latvia, where inflation dropped from 12.3 per cent in May, to 8.1 per cent in June.

Furthermore, in Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain, the level of inflation dropped below the European Central Bank target of two per cent, while in Greece and Cyprus it fell below three per cent.

Malta’s rate was driven up by persistently high inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.8 per cent), followed by housing, water, electricity, and other fuels (7.6 per cent).

On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation was registered the price of clothing and footwear (0.5 per cent), followed by communications (one per cent).

By making use of the European Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose (ECOICOP), it is possible to measure the impact of different categories through the inclusion of an index, which takes into account both the weight and the annual rate of inflation of each category.

According to the National Statistics Office, higher prices of milk, cheese and eggs were largely responsible for inflation in the food and non-alcoholic index, which was the main contributor to inflation.

This was followed by the restaurants and hotels index, and the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index, which attribute their rate of inflation to higher prices of restaurant services and house maintenance services, respectively.