The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 2.5 percent in September, according to the latest calculations of Statistics Finland.
That is an increase of 0.3 percent from August, when inflation year-on-year stood at 2.2 percent year-on-year.
Some of the reasons behind the inflationary spike include a surge in house repair and renovation costs as well as an increase in the world market price of crude oil, the number-crunching agency said in its press release.
The rise in consumer prices was partly balanced out, however, by reductions in daycare costs, the interest rate on housing loans and consumer credit as well as the reduced prices of refundable prescription drugs and gambling services.
Upswing likely short-lived
Economists Patrizio Lainà from STTK and Aki Kangasharju from ETLA both told Yle News that they expected the hike in prices to be only "transitory," a predicted temporary side effect of the pandemic that does not call for concern.
"This inflation period derives mostly from energy prices and I think that after these bottlenecks go away and supply picks up then we will also probably see a drop in the inflation rate. So I think that it's something that consumers will probably not notice anymore in the longer term," Lainà said, adding that the hike in prices consumers are seeing now should only be short-lived.
Kangasharju further added that the inflation rate is expected to recover already by 2022-2023.
The STTK Chief economist said that inflation will be reflected in upcoming wage negotiations. "I think raising rates and more rapid rate development will also help in achieving that inflation goal of the ECB (European Central Bank). And that's actually what the former chairman of the ECB, Mario Draghi has said many times, that we also need wage development to pick up in order to achieve the inflation target sustainably," Lainà told Yle.
The seeming spike in prices is, however, according to the ETLA's managing director, only a byproduct of the "technical comparison" to the increased demand of last year and wage increases should thus be considered carefully.
"So if we now increase wages inporportionally to the inflation, then we also deteriorate our cost competitiveness, the competitiveness in the international markets, and so strong wage increases then destroys our upswing in the economy," Kangasharju said.
Statistics Finland calculates the Consumer Price Index based on data from 19,000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from approximately 2,100 corporations.
You can read more on the rise in petrol prices in Thursday's newspaper round-up.