A citizen visits a supermarket in Stockholm, Sweden, on Jan. 16, 2024. The year-on-year inflation rate in Sweden slowed to 4.4 percent in December, down from 5.8 percent in November, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Monday. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The year-on-year inflation rate in Sweden slowed to 4.4 percent in December, down from 5.8 percent in November, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Monday.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.7 percent from November to December, partly due to higher electricity prices -- though electricity was already 38.9 percent cheaper compared to December 2022, SCB said in a press release.
The price increases in December were broad, but the CPI increase was partially offset by fuel price, which was down 5 percent from November, it said.
In December, food was 5.5 percent more expensive compared to the same period of 2022, SCB said in a separate press release.
"Compared with December 2022, prices were up in eight out of eleven product categories. Sweets and ice cream increased the most in price, with 12 percent. Fish increased by over nine percent," SCB Price Statistician Caroline Neander said in the press release.
Fruit and vegetable prices increased by 9 and 9.2 percent respectively, the document said.
"Cauliflower became more than 47 percent more expensive in 2023, and the price increase for sugar was almost as great. Tomatoes became more than 34 percent more expensive," it quoted Neander as saying.
Neander said that food price increase was still considerable last year, though it was already sharply down from 18.6 percent reported in December 2022.
"The actual price increase for food in the last year was more than three times the price increase between December 2020 and December 2021, and six times as large as between 2019 and 2020," she was quoted as saying in the press release. ■
A citizen visits a supermarket in Stockholm, Sweden, on Jan. 16, 2024. The year-on-year inflation rate in Sweden slowed to 4.4 percent in December, down from 5.8 percent in November, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Monday. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
A citizen visits a supermarket in Stockholm, Sweden, on Jan. 16, 2024. The year-on-year inflation rate in Sweden slowed to 4.4 percent in December, down from 5.8 percent in November, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Monday. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
A citizen visits a supermarket in Stockholm, Sweden, on Jan. 16, 2024. The year-on-year inflation rate in Sweden slowed to 4.4 percent in December, down from 5.8 percent in November, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Monday. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
