The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 20% YoY in May, state agency Statistics Estonia said, driven primarily by soaring energy prices starting from last autumn.
Services alone were 28.8% more expensive than in May last year, goods cost 15.7% more.
Viktoria Trasanov, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said: “Electricity to the home was 146.3% more expensive, heat energy 61.2% more, pipeline gas 217.3% costlier and solid fuels 67.3% more expensive”.
These housing-related price changes contributed over 40% of the total rise in the index, she added.
Between April and May, CPI rose by 1.9%, the agency said.
Of other sectors, price changes experienced in food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed a fifth of the CPI rise; transport slightly less than that.
Gasoline in May was 40.7% more expensive than in May 2021, while diesel fuel cost 55.3% more in May 2022, than a year earlier.
The largest rise in food products May 2021 – May 2022 occurred with potatoes (+125% rise), fresh fish (+77.2%), other oils (+62.3%), eggs (+52.8%) and flour derived from cereals (+43.3%). (ERR/Business World Magazine)