Inflation accelerates in November

Consumer prices in November increased by 0.3 percent compared to the previous month, the Czech Statistics Office reported on Friday. This development was primarily due to a rise in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages. The year-on-year growth in consumer prices amounted to 1.5 percent, i.e. 0.7 percentage points up on October and the most since June 2013. Analysts ascribe the higher than expected growth to the introduction of the law on electronic cash registers ahead of which many entrepreneurs increased prices to make up for the extra expenditures. Analysts predict that inflation may thus reach the Czech National Bank’s target of 2 percent in the first months of 2017.