Euro area annual inflation was 1.7% in March 2013, down from 1.8% in February. A year earlier the rate was 2.7%. Monthly inflation was 1.2% in March 2013. European Union annual inflation was 1.9% in March 2013, down from 2.0% in February. A year earlier the rate was 2.9%. Monthly inflation was 0.9% in March 2013.

In March 2013, the lowest annual rates were observed in Greece (-0.2%), Latvia (0.3%) and Sweden (0.5%), and the highest in Romania (4.4%), Estonia (3.8%) and the Netherlands (3.2%). Compared with February 2013, annual inflation fell in twenty Member States, remained stable in five and rose in one. The lowest 12-month average rates4 up to March 2013 were registered in Greece (0.6%), Sweden (0.8%) and Latvia (1.6%), and the highest in Hungary (4.9%), Estonia (4.0%) and Romania (3.9%).

The largest upward impacts to the euro area annual inflation came from electricity (+0.17 percentage points), package holidays (+0.12) and accommodation services (+0.09), while fuels for transport (-0.23), telecommunications (-0.22) and medical & paramedical services (-0.08) had the biggest downward impacts.