Ljubljana - Inflation in Slovenia, which accelerated to 11% in July in annual comparison, will continue its two-digit growth for at least another two months, chief economist at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) Bojan Ivanc said on Monday. After that, a lot will depend on the price of oil on global markets, he added.

"According to our estimate, inflation will stay above or close to two-digit levels for at least another two months," said Ivanc, adding that the fiscal measures adopted by the government would mitigate the prices of a number of energy sources but would not completely prevent higher wholesale prices of energy and gas.

Turning to wage pressures, he said they "are not yet pronounced and are also limited due to the adopted income tax reform, the payment of extraordinary bonuses for overtime and the payment of 2021 performance bonuses".

Sectors with the greatest shortages of staff, such as construction and catering, are seeing slightly faster wage increases. On the other hand, uncertainties about future business performance, especially in sectors that depend on export demand, are discouraging companies from raising wages in general, he said.

"Over the next two years wages will foremost be influenced by wage dynamics in the public sector, as well as the minimum wage adjustment in 2023. At the level of collective agreements, the general wage adjustment in 2023 is likely to be higher than this year," he said.

GZS analysts expect gross wages in the private sector to go up by around 5-6% this year and by around 6-7% in 2023. "In case of a shock in external demand and an impact on unemployment growth, the likely rise next year would be lower by two to three percentage points," Ivanc added.

The Statistics Office said on Friday that Slovenia's annual inflation rate accelerated to 11% in July, up 0.6 percentage points from June, driven mostly by high prices of petroleum products. This is the highest annual inflation rate since August 1995.

Higher prices of petroleum products contributed as much as 2.1 percentage points to the annual inflation rate as well as half a point to the monthly inflation rate of 1%. Liquid fuels were marked up by a whopping 49.7% in a year where petrol prices rose by 41.1% and prices of diesel were 41% higher.

Another 2 percentage points were added to inflation by a 13.5% hike in food prices. A 30.4% increase in electricity prices contributed 1.1 points to annual inflation, and a 12% rise in prices of furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance added a further 0.9 points.