In June, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) was 6.2%, down from 6.3% in May. It is slightly up on last year, when in June 2022 the annual rate of inflation stood at 6.1%.

The data released today from the National Statistics Office show that the largest upward impact on annual inflation was measured in the Food and non-alcoholic beverages index (+1.99 percentage points) largely due to higher prices of dairy products.

The second and third largest impacts were measured in the Restaurants and hotels index (+1.24 percentage points) and Housing, water, electricity gas and other fuels index (+0.73 percentage points) mainly on account of higher prices of restaurant services and house maintenance services respectively, the NSO said.

The 12-month moving average rate for June stood at 6.9%, up from the same month last year, when it was 3.1%.

Comparing the Maltese HICP with the latest data available for the euro area. In June, the annual rate of change registered by the Maltese All-items HICP was 6.2%, 0.7 percentage points higher than the rate of 5.51% registered in the euro area.

File photo

Permalink: Higher priced dairy products keep inflation at 6.2%