LJUBLJANA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia's year-on-year consumer price inflation jumped to 5.8 percent in January, up from 4.9 percent in December, mainly due to a hike in fuel prices, the statistics office said on Monday. The January inflation level was the highest since August 2008 when inflation reached 6 percent, the statistics office data showed.
Monthly inflation reached 0.4 percent, up from zero a month before, the office said in a report.
"The biggest impact on an annual inflation, 1.2 percentage points, came from higher prices of petroleum products," the office said. As a consequence prices of transport increased by 12.5 percent, while prices of housing, electricity and gas were up by 10.7 percent on an annual level. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages were 4.6 percent higher.
Prices of goods increased by 7.1 percent on average, while prices of services were up by 3.1 percent, the office said.
Analysts fear that inflation could rise further this year as fuel prices continue to rise while domestic wage pressures are increasing after the government recently agreed to raise wages of doctors and nurses by 25 percent. which prompted similar demands from trade unions of other public sector employees. ■
