Slovakia has the highest inflation rate in the Eurozone, at almost 8 percent, against 3 percent (2.9) for the whole Eurozone on average.
Within the 3 per cent European average are big differences: at one extreme Slovakia, with 7.8 per cent inflation, at the other end Belgium, with Deflation of 1.7 per cent. (Hungary, which does not have the euro, had an inflation rate of 12 per cent in September.)
The main cause for high inflation Slovakia is food, says the Statistics Office of Slovakia. And that has been the cause for the past three years. Prices for bread, eggs, cheese, milk, vegetables and other staples were still going up by 20 per cent or more this summer; but those price rises have finally come to an end.
Inflation is softening not just for food, but for all prices in Slovakia. The same can be seen in the Eurozone as a whole.
But that good news could be a symptom of economic slowdown. The economic growth in the EU, and the Eurozone, dropped to about a half percent this summer and came down further to zero or even less, in the autumn.
The main weak point is Germany, whose economy is now shrinking. The countries whose economies are closely tied to Germany feel the most pain. These are mostly the Visegrad countries Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. And indeed, the economies of Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic stopped growing this summer and actually shrank slightly. This according to an analysis of the Vienna Institute of International Economic Studies.
(TASR, WIIW)
