Slovenia's annual inflation rate accelerated to 2.3% in April, up 0.3 percentage points on the month before, largely due to higher prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, data from the national Statistical Office shows.

The annual inflation rate has not been above 2% since May last year, when it ran at 2.5%. It was even higher in April last year, at 3%.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 5.9% year-on-year, contributing 1.1 points to the headline rate of inflation.

Costlier clothing and footwear (+4.2%), recreation and culture (+3%), and restaurants and hotel services (+4.4%) contributed a further 0.3 points each to inflation.

The prices of services rose by an average 3.2% and those of goods by 1.8% in a year. The biggest increase was recorded in prices of semi-durable goods (+3.9%), while durable goods are now 0.3% cheaper than a year ago.

The monthly inflation rate ran at 1.3%, pushed up the most by higher prices of package holidays (+13.6%) and footwear (+20%).

Slovenia's annual inflation in April also ran at 2.3% when measured with the EU-compatible harmonised index of consumer prices, while the monthly rate was slightly lower, at 0.8%.