Swedbank analyst: inflation fuelled by energy cost

Annika Paabut, macroanalyst at Swedbank, says that Estonian inflation accelerated for the first time in five months in January because of tariff increases for electricity, heating and higher fuel costs.

“We believe that inflation should slow down notably in the second half as global price pressure eases,” said Paabut, adding that Swedbank expects the annual inflation in 2012
to be 3.2 percent.

“We were expecting inflation to speed up, but by not quite as much,” she said.

Prices were 4.5 percent higher than a year earlier and 0.7 percent higher than in December 2011, according to Statistics Estonia.

Electricity prices rose 4.4 percent last month from December, while heating costs increased 2.9 percent and gas prices jumped 10.6 percent.

Regulated prices of goods and services were up 9.2%

Toomas Hõbemägibbnatchararipaev.ee