Austria Inflation Rises To 8-Month High

(RTTNews) - Austria's consumer price inflation rose further in January to the highest level in eight months, a flash estimate from Statistics Austria showed on Monday.

The consumer price index climbed 3.3 percent year-over-year in January, faster than the 2.0 percent increase in December.

Further, this was the highest inflation since May 2024, when prices had risen the same 3.3 percent.

With this, the inflation rate is now well above the European Central Bank's stability target of 2.0 percent.

The upward trend in inflation is primarily due to the fact that price-lowering measures like the electricity price cap are no longer effective from January 2025, network charges have risen automatically, and the CO2 tax has also been increased, the agency said.

Energy prices were 3.7 percent higher in January compared to a year ago, after having a dampening effect on prices in the previous months. The strongest price driver was once again the service sector, with its high proportion of wage costs, showing a year-on-year rise of 4.7 percent.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices moved up 1.1 percent.

The EU measure of the harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, also rose at a faster rate of 3.5 percent versus a 2.1 percent increase in December. Monthly, the HICP rose 0.9 percent.