Inflation slowed further in March. According to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office, prices increased by 25.2 percent in one year. Economic Development Minister Márton Nagy said: the March numbers are in line with the government's expectations, inflation peaked in January, and then started to decrease.

Hungarians' favorite cheese is sold mostly in one of the food stores in Buda. The reason for this is that the price is reduced again and again, just as thousands of products have become cheaper in recent weeks. Inflation was curbed in parallel with the decrease in prices.

After 25.7 in January, the Central Statistical Office measured 25.4 percent inflation in February and 25.2 percent in March, in an annual comparison. According to a financial expert speaking to M1 News, the data show that we have passed the peak of inflation.

During the spectacular fall a year ago, many people were worried about the forint, but since then the world has turned around: today the Hungarian currency has become the favorite of investors.

In February, the trend reversed, prices started to fall. Presumably, in the first half of the year, this price reduction will continue, and roughly on the same scale. In the second half of the year, the fall in inflation may gain momentum. From that point on, the reduction will be spectacular, which will result in the consumer price index reaching single digits by December.

According to the specialist

this year's decrease in inflation was helped by cheaper foodstuffs and technical and electronic goods, but this was not the determining factor.

"The fact that energy prices were able to decrease significantly contributed to the decrease in inflation, especially because people consume less of the expensive market-priced electricity and gas and try to fit into the energy prices protected by overheads, and this overall led to a decrease in inflation," explained Levente Tóth senior analyst.

Analysts expected a bigger drop than the current one, which was prevented by the service sector by the telecommunication companies raising their prices by eight percent. This was offset by the fact that fuel prices have been falling almost since the beginning of the year, mainly thanks to the strong HUF.

The domestic currency has approached the level of 375 several times in recent days,

while half a year ago, the euro was sold for more than HUF 430 on the money markets. By the way, the Hungarian currency will play a big role in determining the degree of monetary deterioration this year. After all, we import many products, raw materials and energy from abroad, for which we pay in euros.

If the HUF strengthens compared to the common currency, these products will cost less, but other factors also influence the development of inflation.

"What affects, on the one hand, how the price of foreign products, imported from abroad, develops. In addition, what will this year's harvest be like, as this has a great impact on food prices. At this point, it is also important whether the government maintains the price caps imposed on food. If you keep this, it will curb inflation, but if you eliminate it, it will increase the rate of inflation by one percentage point," said leading economist Dávid Német.

Source: hirado.hu

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