EURO AREA ANNUAL INFLATION UP TO 1.0%, EU UP TO 1.7%

Euro area annual inflation was 1.0% in January 2010, up from 0.9% in December 2009. A year earlier the rate was 1.1%. Monthly inflation was -0.8% in January 2010.

EU annual inflation was 1.7% in January 2010, up from 1.5% in December 2009. A year earlier the rate was 1.8%. Monthly inflation was -0.5 % in January 2010.

These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union .

Inflation in the EU Member States

In January 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (-3.3%), Ireland (-2.4%) and Estonia (-1.0%), and the highest in Hungary (6.2%), Romania (5.2%) and Poland (3.9%). Compared with December 2009, annual inflation rose in seventeen Member States, remained stable in one and fell in nine.

The lowest 12-month averages 4 up to January 2010 were registered in Ireland (-2.0%), Portugal (-0.9%) and Estonia (-0.3%), and the highest in Romania (5.4%), Hungary (4.3%) and Poland (4.0%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in January 2010 were transport (4.9%), alcohol & tobacco (4.6%) and miscellaneous goods & services (1.9%) , while the lowest annual rates were observed for food (-1.2%), communications (-0.9%), clothing, housing and recreation & culture (all -0.3%) . Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.62 percentage points), tobacco (+0.13) and heating oil (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while gas (-0.33), cars (-0.10) and milk, cheese & eggs (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (1.0%), food (0.6%) and housing (0.5%), while the lowest were clothing (-11.3%), recreation & culture (-2.3%), household equipment and hotels & restaurants (both -0.7%) . In particular, fuels for transport (+0.18 percentage points) and vegetables (+0.11) had t he largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.61), package holidays (-0.20) and footwear (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts.