In January, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), declined by 0.4 percentage points to 8.8 percent from 9.2 percent in December, 2011. Inflation fell across a broad range of commodity groups, including: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 9.0 percent to 8.9 percent); alcohol and tobacco (from 5.9 percent to 5.5 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 10.1 percent to 9.9 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 9.5 percent to 9.4 percent); transport (from 15.4 percent to 14.7 percent); recreation and culture (from 7.3 percent to 7.2 percent); education (from 10.6 percent to 6.3 percent, mainly due to smaller increases to private school fees compared to 2011); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 4.5 percent to 4.1 percent). In contrast, inflation only rose for clothing and footwear (from 9.1 percent to 9.5 percent) and restaurants and hotels (from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent), while remaining unchanged for health and communication at 6.1 percent and -5.4 percent, respectively.

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation declined from 8.5 percent in December 2011 to 8.1 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices also declined, from 7.5 percent to 7.2 percent.