Higher private school tuition fees were the leading cause of inflation in June, official figures show.  

According to National Statistics Office data, inflation last month remained stable at 0.2 per cent.

The largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered in NSO's index on education, 0.38 percentage points. 

Inflation in education, the NSO said, was largely due to higher private school fees.

The second and third largest impacts on inflation were measured in the food and non-alcoholic beverages Index (+0.34 percentage points) and the recreation and culture Index (+0.31 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of vegetables and cinema tickets respectively. 

Downward impacts on annual inflation were meanwhile registered in the restaurants and hotels index (-0.93 percentage points), the transport index (-0.12 percentage points) and the communication index (-0.05 percentage points), mainly reflecting a lower contribution from accommodation services and lower prices of fuels and mobile phone services respectively.

The highest annual inflation rates in June 2021 were recorded in education (19.7 per cent), followed by recreation and culture, where prices increased by 3.5 per cent.

On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in communication services (-1.4 per cent) and transport (-0.8 per cent).

The data is based on Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), an indicator of inflation and price stability approved by the European Central Bank.

The HICP measures monthly price changes in the cost of purchasing a representative basket of consumer goods and services.