Annual harmonised inflation continued to decline and reached the value 2.4%

The annual inflation measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices according to the European harmonized methodology reached the value 2.4% in April 2024, which was 0.3 percentage points lower than its value in March 2024. The month-on-month HICP inflation reached the value 0.4%.

The average annual rate of HICP inflation (comparing change in the average price level for the average of the harmonized consumer price indices for the last 12 months compared to the average of the previous 12 months) reached in April 2024 the value 7.1%, a year ago - in April 2023 its value was 14.0 %. The average annual HICP inflation rate is an important indicator of a country’s price stability, its level is also considered as one of the four so-called Maastricht criteria that an EU Member State must meet before adopting the euro.

In April 2024, the harmonized indices of consumer prices increased by 0.4% month-on-month in total. The month-on-month increase in the price level was mostly affected by the increase in prices in the Transport division (a total positive contribution of +0.16 percentage point to month-on-month inflation was mainly caused by the increase of prices of passenger transport by air and increase of prices of fuels). The second and third most significant influence on the increase of prices in April compared to the price level in March had the divisions: Miscellaneous goods and services (+0.10 p.p. - in particular the prices of personal hygiene items and administrative fees increased) and Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+0.07 p.p.). On the contrary, the decrease of prices and the highest negative contribution to the month-on-month inflation was reached in the division Food and non-alcoholic beverages (the negative contribution of the entire division amounted to -0.07 p.p.).

The resulting summary of harmonized inflation within Europe for April 2024 can be found on 17 May 2024 from 11 a.m. on the Eurostat website.