Inflation fell towards the end of the year. Higher housing costs account for a third of annual inflation.
Food became more expensive in 2020.
In Austria, inflation slowed slightly in the previous year. The inflation rate fell from 1.5 percent in 2019 to 1.4 percent in 2020.
In the corona year 2020, food inflation was 2.4 percent, around twice as high as in the previous year, said Statistics Austria on Wednesday. The cheap crude oil, however, caused the prices of fuel and heating oil to fall. In December 2020, the inflation rate was 1.2 percent, after 1.3 percent in the previous month.
The trend of low inflation rates of the last decades continued in the exceptional year 2020, however, this was not noticeable at the supermarket checkouts: According to Statistics Austria, prices for fruit (4.6 percent) and meat products (4.5 percent) rose particularly strongly.
As in 2019, housing expenses had the greatest impact on annual inflation, being responsible for a third of the rise. A slight decrease in fuels in 2019 was followed by a stronger one in 2020.
