Slovenia now has one of the highest inflation rates in the euro area as annual consumer price growth rate accelerated to 7.5% in September from 6.2% the month before on the back of surging food and beverage prices.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 9.2% on the year before, contributing 1.6 percentage points to inflation, the latest Statistics Office data show.

Adding 0.9 points, electricity was 26.5% costlier, largely due to the expiry of a waiver of network fees put in place during the recent energy crisis.

Overall energy prices remained subdued with liquid fuels almost a fifth cheaper than the year before.

At monthly level, inflation rose by 0.2 points to 0.3%, fuelled by a 10% rise in electricity prices.

Measured with the harmonised index of consumer prices, an EU-wide gauge, annual inflation in September ran at 7.1%.

Slovenia currently has the third highest consumer price growth in the euro area, after Slovakia and Croatia.

The euro area overall saw inflation drop by almost a full percentage point to 4.3%, according to the latest Eurostat data.