Euro area annual inflation was 1.2% in February 2009, up from 1.1% in January, while EU annual inflation was 1.7%, down from 1.8% in January. A year earlier the rate in the Euro area was 3.3%, and 3.5% in the European Union. These figures come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Inflation in the EU Member States

Monthly inflation was 0.4% in February 2009. Last month, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland and Portugal (both 0.1%) and Cyprus (0.6%), and the highest in Latvia (9.4%), Lithuania (8.5%) and Romania (6.9%). Compared with January 2009, annual inflation fell in eleven Member States, remained stable in two and rose in thirteen.

The lowest 12-month averages up to February 2009 were registered in the Netherlands and Portugal (both 2.2%) and Germany (2.4%), and the highest in Latvia (14.1%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (both 10.8%), according to data provided by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in February 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (3.2%), hotels & restaurants (2.9%) and housing (2.8%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-2.7%), communications (-1.4%) and clothing (0.1%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, gas (+0.21 percentage points), restaurants & cafés (+0.15) and electricity (+0.12) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-0.78) and heating oil (-0.25) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (1.5%), recreation & culture (1.1%) and transport (0.6%), while the lowest were food (-0.1%), housing and communications (0.0% each). In particular, package holidays (+0.08 percentage points), fuels for transport (+0.07) and garments (+0.06) had the largest upward impacts, while cars (-0.04) had the biggest downward impact.