Inflation in the EU Member States
In October 2008, the lowest annual rates were observed in Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal (2.5% each), and the highest in Latvia (13.7%), Bulgaria (11.2%) and Lithuania (10.7%). Compared with September 2008, annual inflation fell in twenty-four Member States and rose in two.
The lowest 12-month averages up to October 2008 were registered in the Netherlands (2.2%), Portugal (2.9%) and Germany (3.1%), and the highest in Latvia (15.8%), Bulgaria (12.6%) and Lithuania (11.0%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in October 2008 were housing (5.9%), food (4.7%) and transport (3.7%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-2.2%), recreation & culture (0.2%) and clothing (1.0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, gas (+0.25 percentage points), heating oil (+0.14) and fuels for transport (+0.12) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.17), cars (-0.13) and garments (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main component with the highest monthly rate was clothing (3.3%), and the lowest were transport (-1.8%) and recreation & culture (-0.3%). In particular, garments (+0.17 percentage points), gas and footwear (+0.05 each) had the largest upward impacts, while fuels for transport (-0.33) and heating oil (-0.08) had the biggest downward impacts.
