In December, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 9.2 percent, unchanged from the previous month. Inflation increased for the following commodity groups: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 8.6 percent to 9.0 percent); clothing and footwear (7.7 percent to 9.1 percent); health (from 6.0 percent to 6.1 percent) and restaurants and hotels (from 7.8 percent to 8.2 percent). However, these increases were fully offset by declines in inflation for alcohol and tobacco (from 6.9 percent to 5.9 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 10.2 percent to 10.1 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 9.9 percent to 9.5 percent); transport (from 15.7 percent to 15.4 percent); recreation and culture (from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 4.6 percent to 4.5 percent). Inflation for communication and for education was unchanged at -5.4 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively.

Both the trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices were unchanged at 8.5 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.