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A breakdown of inflation The price of clothing and footwear has risen on average by 2.5%. This is mostly because of higher prices for the new autumn-winter collections of clothes and footwear. The price of clothing increased by 3.4% while the price of footwear rose by 0.4%. In the education category prices rose on average by 1.1%, which is mostly the result of higher prices for education not defined by level (an increase of 4.1%). The fall in the price of services was mostly the result of lower holiday prices in the low season (a decline of 16.6%). This caused prices in the recreation and cultural category to fall by 2.5%. In addition to the above mentioned decreases, the price of fruit fell by 6.8%, hotel accommodation by 5.1% and the prices of fuel and lubricants by 1.1%. The price of vegetables went up by 9.6%, passenger transport by road by 7.5%, accommodation in student homes by 5%, medical products and therapeutic appliances by 4%, other personal effects by 3.6%, other services by 3.1%, liquid fuels by 2.8%, garden plants and flowers by 2.6% and heating by 2.5%. The struggle to meet the inflation goal for 2003 Although inflation has fallen from 7.2% to 5.5% (August 2002-03), it is still twice the rate required by the Maastricht convergence criteria and is out of line with other economies in the EU. Inflation is expected to fall to around 5.1 % by the end of 2003 as the Strategy for the Economic Development of Slovenia predicts. Compared to the other candidate countries for accession to the EU, Slovenia's position in terms of the fulfillment of the inflation criteria is rather weak. The situation seven years ago in 1996 was much different. Then Hungary and Poland had inflation rates of close to 20% while the rate in The Czech republic was similar to Slovenia's (about 8%). Data for September 2003 shows that The Czech republic and Poland have managed to cut inflation to well below the prescribed criterion (under 1%), in Hungary the downward tendency is stable (4.5%) while Slovenia is still struggling with 5%.