In October 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (1.1%), Ireland (1.5%) and Malta (2.4%), and the highest in the United Kingdom (5.0%), Estonia (4.7%) and Slovakia (4.6%). Compared with September 2011, annual inflation fell in nine Member States, remained stable in five and rose in thirteen.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to October 2011 were registered in Ireland (0.8%), Sweden (1.6%), the Czech Republic and Slovenia (both 2.0%), and the highest in Romania (6.6%), Estonia (5.2%) and the United Kingdom (4.3%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in October 2011 were transport (5.8%), housing (5.1%) and alcohol & tobacco (4.4%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.9%), recreation & culture (0.3%) and education (0.9%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.52 percentage points), heating oil (+0.19), gas (+0.12) and electricity (+0.11) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.16), rents (-0.11) and vegetables (-0.10) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (2.6%), alcohol & tobacco (0.9%) and housing (0.5%), while the lowest were education (-0.3%) and communications (-0.2%). In particular, garments (+0.12 percentage points), footwear, gas and tobacco (+0.03 each) had the largest upward impacts, while fuels for transport, rents and accommodation services (-0.03 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
