Serbia: Inflation tumbles in September from the prior month
Latest reading: Consumer prices rose 2.9% in annual terms in September, following a 4.7% increase in the previous month and marking the lowest rate since April 2021. The steep decrease stemmed from a government-implemented cap on wholesale and retail trade margins which slashed food price growth; in previous months, food costs had been surging as adverse weather deteriorated crops.
Relative to the prior month’s data, there were milder price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+1.7% on a year-on-year basis vs +7.8% in August) and restaurants and hotels (+6.6% vs +7.5% in August). In contrast, there were more notable price pressures for transportation (+2.2% vs +0.1% in August) and housing and utilities (+3.2% vs +3.0% in August). Finally, the change in clothing and footwear prices was the same as in the prior month (+3.9% in September and August).
Meanwhile, core consumer prices increased 3.9% on a year-on-year basis in September, following a 4.5% increase in the prior month.
Finally, consumer prices were down 1.59% in September on a month-on-month basis, following a 0.24% increase in the prior month.