According to the data released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the Euro area annual inflation was 3.6% in March 2008, up from 3.3% in February. A year earlier the rate was 1.9%. Monthly inflation was 1.0% in March 2008.

These figures are a correction to the earlier estimation published on 31st March 2008.

In March 2008, the lowest annual rates were observed in the Netherlands (1.9%), the United Kingdom (2.5%) and Portugal (3.1%), and the highest in Latvia (16.6%), Bulgaria (13.2%) and Lithuania (11.4%). Compared with February 2008, annual inflation rose in eighteen Member States, remained stable in three and fell in six.

The lowest 12-month averages up to March 2008 were registered in Malta (1.5%), the Netherlands (1.7%), Denmark and Sweden (2.0% each), and the highest in Latvia (12.3%), Bulgaria (9.4%) and Estonia (8.3%).

The main components with the highest annual rates in March 2008 were education (9.6%), food (6.2%) and transport (5.6%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.5%), recreation & culture (0.6%) and clothing (1.0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.51 percentage points), heating oil (+0.26) and milk, cheese & eggs (+0.23) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications and cars (-0.16 each) and garments (-0.15) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (7.2%), transport (1.3%), household equipment and housing (0.6% each), and the lowest were health (-0.1%), education (0.0%), alcohol & tobacco and recreation & culture (0.2% each). In particular, garments (+0.32 percentage points), fuels for transport (+0.12), footwear (+0.08) and heating oil (+0.05) had the largest upward impacts, while rents and cars (-0.05 each) and restaurants & cafés (-0.04) had the biggest downward impacts.