In February, the consumer price index rose by 12% YoY, data from Statistics Estonia showed. Prices increased by 1.5% compared to January.
Viktoria Trasanov, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said, compared to February 2021, the consumer price index was affected the most by housing-related price changes, which contributed over a third of the total rise in the index.
There were also big increases for utilities: electricity rose in price by 39.4%, central heating by 27.1% and pipeline gas by 84.9%.
“The price changes of food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for nearly a fourth and transport for a fifth of the total increase,” said Trasanov.
Petrol was 26.3% more expensive and diesel fuel rose by 27.1%.
Among food products, the biggest increase compared to February 2021 was recorded in the prices of potatoes (+122%), fresh vegetables (+45.4%), fresh fish (+42%), other oils (+26.7%) and low-fat milk (+22.6%).
Compared to January, the biggest impact on the consumer price index came from the 3.7% price increase of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Petrol was 5.7% and diesel fuel 7.1% more expensive.
The electricity that reached homes was 5.2% cheaper. Central heating was 10.8% cheaper, which was due to the Government’s decision to compensate to households in February and March 65% of the part of the central heating bill that exceeds the unit price level of October 2021. (ERR/Business World Magazine)