Inflation slides to 3.5% in December

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 3.5 per cent in December, according to Statistics Finland.

In November, inflation stood at 3.7 per cent. Inflation slowed down above all because the rising of liquid fuel prices eased off. In 2021, the average inflation rate was 2.2 per cent.

Consumer prices were raised most in December by increases in the prices of capital repair on detached houses, petrol, electricity, diesel, and renovation of blocks of flats from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of children’s day care, average interest rate on housing loans and consumer credit, long-distance train journeys and medical examination and treatment fees.

From November to December, consumer prices decreased by 0.1 per cent which was caused by lower prices of fuels, for example.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 19,000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from approximately 2,100 outlets for the Consumer Price Index.

The price data is supplemented with scanner data wherefrom 5 million individual prices are included into calculation. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.