Slovak inflation hit a 22-year high, with year-on-year growth of consumer prices reaching 12.6% in May, up for the sixteenth consecutive month, the Slovak Statistics Office reported. Monthly growth of consumer prices was 1.6% in May.

Food prices went up by 16.6% y/y in May, followed by a growth in housing and energy prices by 15.6% y/y in May. The consumer prices index recorded an annual growth of 12.5% in May for employee households, 13.5% for pensioner households and 12.7% for low-income households.

In 4M22, the inflation rate increased to 10.4% compared to the first four months in 2021. 

The Statistics Office also published figures on the development of April wages which, however, failed to keep up with the pace of inflation and recorded a real decline in seven monitored sectors. "In April, nominal monthly wages rose y/y in all the sectors monitored, but significantly slower than inflation. They rose the most dynamically in accommodation, almost by a third," said the statisticians.

Compared to April 2021 data, the highest growth in wages was seen in the accommodation sector, up by 29.7% y/y to €908, followed by food and beverage service activities by 13.1% to €630, construction by 11.9% to €896, sale and repair of motor vehicles by 11.6% to €1,229 and in retail trade by 11.3% to €944. On the contrary, the lowest nominal wage growth was recorded in the ICT sector, up by 4% to €2,276. The industry posted a wage increase by 7% y/y.

If inflation is taken into account, real wages rose in only three of the 10 sectors monitored, mostly in accommodation, up by as much as 16%. Real wages dropped most markedly in the ICT sector by 7%, in selected market services by 5.7% and in transport and storage by 5.5%.