You can describe it as the calm before the storm when Statistics Austria reports on inflation in Austria in February. At that time there was no sign of the consequences of the war in the Middle East, which had driven up fuel prices at the pumps. Last month, year-on-year inflation was still 2.2 percent, slightly higher than in January, when price increases were only two percent. Manuela Lenk, head of the statistics authority, explains the slight increase by the fact that household energy and fuel dampened inflation less and tobacco products became more expensive. “The main contribution to inflation continued to be above-average increases in service prices,” adds Lenk.
