Clothes & shoes pull down August inflation rate

08 Sep '05

3 min read

The Dutch inflation rate in August 2005 reached 1.8 percent, up 0.2 percent point on June and July. Then prices were 1.6 percent higher than the year before according to the consumer price index of Statistics Netherlands. The increase is mainly due to price developments in petrol, gas, electricity, potatoes, vegetables and flowers.

The Dutch inflation rate according to the European harmonised method was 1.6 percent; 0.1 percent point higher than in July.

Price rise of 0.4 percent in August
In August consumer prices rose on average by 0.4 percent on July. Car fuels, gas and electricity became more expensive. The prices of vegetables, flowers and plants went up substantially. The prices of clothes and shoes increased because summer sales ended and the winter collection was introduced.

Energy main cause of inflation
The increase in consumer prices in August compared to July was larger this year than in 2004. Because of this, the inflation rate in August 2005 rose to 1.8 percent.

The price development of energy contributed even more to the inflation rate. In August gas, electricity and car fuels contributed 1.2 percent point. This was 1.0 percent point in July. The other articles contributed 0.6 percent point to the inflation rate.

Car fuels were on average 12.3 percent more expensive in August than in August 2004. In July this was 10.7 percent. After a rate increase in August, gas became 18.8 percent more expensive than a year ago and electricity 8.9 percent.

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