Inflation up slightly in February

According to Statistics Netherlands’ consumer price index, inflation in the Netherlands was 1.5 percent in February 2007. This is slightly higher than in January, when prices were 1.4 percent higher than in the same month last year.
Inflation according to the European harmonised method was 1.4 percent. This, too, is higher than in January.

Higher petrol prices push up inflation

The small increase in inflation was mainly caused by higher petrol prices. These were 0.2 percent higher than one year previously. In January petrol cost 3.5 percent less than in the same month last year. Price developments for telephone, fax and Internet services also had an upward effect on inflation. Although the prices of these products were 3.1 percent lower than twelve months previously, in January they were 4.2 percent lower.
Clothing had a curbing effect on inflation. Prices rose substantially as the sales came to an end, but the price increase was much larger in February 2006.

Inflation according to the European method also up

Dutch inflation calculated according to the European harmonised method (HICP) was 1.4 percent in February. In January HICP inflation for the Netherlands was 1.2 percent. Provisional Eurostat estimates put inflation in the eurozone at 1.8 percent in February, just as in January.