Croatia’s Inflation in March: A 3.2% Rise Amid Eurozone’s High Prices

The inflation rate in Croatia, measured by the consumer price index, was 3.2 percent year-on-year in March, according to data released by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on Tuesday. This marks the second consecutive month of slower price growth on an annual basis, while Eurostat data shows that inflation in Croatia remains among the highest in the Eurozone.

The DZS published the first estimate of the consumer price index, according to which the inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.2 percent compared to March 2024. In comparison to the previous month, February 2025, it was, on average, 0.4 percent higher.

The trend of slowing price growth on an annual basis, which had been observed for several months, was interrupted in October 2024. After an increase of 2.2 percent in October, 2.8 percent in November, 3.4 percent in December, and 4 percent in January this year, annual inflation returned to a downward path in February, with a growth of 3.7 percent. The trend of slowing down continued in March.

According to the main components of the index, the estimated annual inflation rate for services is 6 percent, for the group including food, beverages, and tobacco it is 4.4 percent, for energy it is 2.1 percent, while industrial non-food products excluding energy have decreased by 0.2 percent, as stated in the DZS announcement.

On a monthly basis, compared to February 2025, prices of industrial non-food products excluding energy rose by 2.1 percent, services increased by 0.7 percent, while energy prices on average decreased by 1.2 percent, and food, beverages, and tobacco prices dropped by 0.2 percent.

The DZS announced that the final data on the consumer price index for March, according to the ECOICOP classification (European Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose), will be published on April 15.

Eurostat: Inflation in Croatia in March 4.3 percent, among the highest in the Eurozone

According to the first estimate released today by Eurostat, the annual inflation rate in March, measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) in Croatia, was 4.3 percent, the same as in Estonia and Slovakia, making these three countries also the ones with the highest inflation in the Eurozone.

In the entire Eurozone, the average annual inflation rate in March was 2.2 percent. After Croatia, Estonia, and Slovakia, the highest inflation, at 3.6 percent, was recorded in Belgium, Lithuania, and Latvia.