According to the data released by Eurostat, in December 2011 the Euro area inflation and the EU annual inflation were down in comparison with November. Monthly inflation was 0.3% in December 2011 for both, the Euro area and the EU

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has published its latest statistics on the inflation. Both, the annual inflation for the EU and for the Euro area were down in December 2011 in comparison to November same year. In particular, the Euro area annual inflation was 2.7% in December 2011, down from 3.0% in November. A year earlier the rate was 2.2%. The EU annual inflation was 3.0% in December 2011, down from 3.4% in November. A year earlier the rate was 2.7%. In September 2011, the annual inflation were up in comparison with the precedent month.

In the Euro area, the main components with the highest annual rates in December 2011 were housing (4.9%), transport (4.3%) and alcohol & tobacco (3.8%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.9%), recreation & culture (0.6%) and education (0.9%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.30 percentage points), heating oil (+0.15), gas and electricity (+0.12 each) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.15) and vegetables (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts. The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (2.0%) and hotels & restaurants (1.0%), while the lowest monthly rate was observed for clothing (-1.3%). In particular, package holidays (+0.18 percentage points) and accommodation services (+0.07) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.10) had the biggest downward impact.

With regard to the inflation in the EU Member States, in December 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (0.4%), Malta (1.3%) and Bulgaria (2.0%), and the highest in Slovakia (4.6%), Poland (4.5%) and Cyprus (4.2%). Compared with November 2011, annual inflation fell in twenty-one Member States, remained stable in two and rose in two.