Malta: Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (June 2023)
In June 2023, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the HICP was 6.2 per cent, down from 6.3 per cent in May 2023.
Price changes and effects on inflation
The highest annual inflation rates in June 2023 were recorded in Food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.8 per cent), and Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (7.6 per cent). On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in Clothing and footwear (0.5 per cent) and Communication (1.0 per cent) (Table 1).
Chart 2 depicts the impact on the annual inflation rate by the 12 ECOICOP main divisions. An impact is a measure showing the change in inflation as a result of the inclusion of an index. Such an impact takes into account both the weight and the annual rate of inflation by division.
In June 2023, the largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered 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 the 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 (Chart 2).
On the other hand, no downward impacts on annual inflation were registered in the month of June (Chart 2).
HICP (Malta and euro area)
This section compares 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 per cent, 0.7 percentage points higher than the rate of 5.5 per cent registered in the euro area (Chart 3).
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