VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The annual rate of inflation in Malta remained steady at 3.7% in January 2024. This is 0.9 percentage points more than the 2.81% registered for the euro area during the same period, that is a slight decrease from 2.9% in December.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s annual inflation rate was 3.1% during the same period. Some EU member states recorded notably lower annual inflation rates, with Denmark and Italy at 0.9%, and Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland at 1.1%.
According to the National Statistics Office, the data highlights significant disparities in inflation rates between Malta and the eurozone, with Malta experiencing higher levels of inflation across various sectors.
The highest annual inflation rates in January 2024 were recorded in food and non-alcoholic beverages, soaring at 10.1%, followed by education at 5.6%.
The contributing factors to Maltàs inflation shows that the surge in food and non-alcoholic beverages prices, particularly vegetables, had the largest upward impact on annual inflation, accounting for a significant increase of 1.80 percentage points.
Increase in restaurant service prices and rents contributed to the upward trend, with the restaurants and hotels Index and the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels Index each contributing 0.69 and 0.44 percentage points respectively.
However, the communications sector, clothing and footwear saw a decline in inflation rates at -9.4% and -0.8% respectively.
The official statistics also show a decrease in mobile phone services, and package holiday prices that led to downward impacts on annual inflation, particularly in the communication, clothing, and recreation and culture indices.
– Foto: Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).
