ZAGREB, 16 June (Hina) – Consumer prices in Croatia were 3.5% higher in May compared with the same month last year, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) announced on Monday, marking an acceleration of inflation on an annual basis.
The DZS published its second estimate of the national Consumer Price Index, according to which the inflation rate in May 2025 was 3.5% compared with May 2024, while consumer prices rose by 0.3% compared with April 2025.
This confirmed the first estimate, published on 3 June, regarding the annual inflation trend, although the monthly inflation rate was slightly adjusted from the initial 0.4% estimate.
After standing at 4% in January, 3.7%В in February and 3.2% in both March and April, inflation accelerated again in May on a yearly basis.
Prices in restaurants and hotels increased by 9% year-on-year
According to the main groups of the ECOICOP classification, the highest average annual increase in consumer prices was recorded in the restaurants and hotels category, at 9%. This was followed by miscellaneous goods and services with a 6.2% rise, recreation and culture with 5.8%, food and non-alcoholic beverages with 5.7%, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 5.6%, education with 5.3%, and health with 5.1%. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded an average price rise of 1.8%, while communications saw a slight increase of 0.1%.
Decreases were recorded year-on-year in three categories – transport by 1.9%, clothing and footwear by 1.7%, and furniture, household equipment and routine household maintenance by 0.2%.
Regarding the main components of the index (special aggregates), prices for services increased by 6.2% year-on-year. Prices for food, beverages and tobacco rose by 5.1%, energy by 1.5%В and industrial non-food products excluding energy by 0.1%.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 1.4% month-on-month
On a monthly basis, the DZS statistics showed that food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose the most on average, by 1.4%. This was followed by restaurants and hotels with a 1.3% increase, recreation and culture, and miscellaneous goods and services each rising by 0.6%, communications by 0.5%В and health by 0.3%.
Conversely, transport prices fell by 0.8%, clothing and footwear by 0.7%В and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels by 0.3%.
Among the main components of the index, monthly price increases were recorded in food, beverages and tobacco at 1.2%, and services at 0.6%. Energy pricesВ dropped by 1.2%, while prices of industrial non-food products excluding energy remained unchanged on average.
HICPВ – annual inflation at 4.3%
The DZS also provided data on inflation measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), a comparable inflation measure used across European Union countries.
According to this data, prices of goods and services for personal consumption were on average 0.5% higher in May 2025 than in April 2025В and 4.3% higher compared with May 2024.
