Euro area annual inflation was 1.6% in August 2010, down from 1.7% in July. A year earlier the rate was -0.2%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in August 2010.

EU annual inflation was 2.0% in August 2010, down from 2.1% in July. A year earlier the rate was 0.6%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in August 2010.

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

Inflation in the EU Member States

In August 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-1.2%), Latvia (-0.4%) and Germany (1.0%), and the highest in Romania (7.6%), Greece (5.6%) and Hungary (3.6%). Compared with July 2010, annual inflation rose in ten, remained stable in nine and fell in eight Member States.

The lowest 12-month averages4 up to August 2010 were registered in Ireland (-2.3%), Latvia (-2.0%), Portugal and Slovakia (both 0.3%), and the highest in Hungary and Romania (both 5.0%) and Greece (3.5%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in August 2010 were alcohol & tobacco and transport (both 3.3%) and housing (2.6%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-0.5%), recreation & culture (-0.1%) and clothing (0.2%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.31 percentage points), heating oil (+0.13) and vegetables (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while garments (-0.08) and telecommunications (-0.07) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (1.8%), recreation & culture, hotels & restaurants and miscellaneous goods & services (0.3% each), while the lowest were food (-0.2%), health (-0.1%) and transport (0.0%). In particular, garments (+0.09 percentage points) had the largest upward impact, while fruit and fuels for transport (-0.04 each) had the biggest downward impacts.