Euro area annual inflation was 3.1% in November 2007, up from 2.6% in October. A year earlier the rate was 1.9%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in November 2007. EU annual inflation was 3.1% in November 2007, up from 2.7% in October. A year earlier the rate was 2.1%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in November 2007.

In November 2007, the lowest annual rates were observed in the Netherlands (1.8%), Finland (2.1%) and Slovakia (2.3%), and the highest rates in Latvia (13.7%), Bulgaria (11.4%) and Estonia (9.3%). Compared with October 2007, annual inflation rose in twenty-four Member States and fell in two.

The lowest 12-month averages up to November 2007 were registered in Malta (0.5%), France and Finland (1.5% each), and the highest in Latvia (9.5%), Hungary (7.9%) and Bulgaria (7.1%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in November 2007 were education (9.4%), transport (5.8%) and food (4.3%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.8%), recreation & culture (0.3%) and clothing (1.2%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.55 percentage points), heating oil (+0.17) and milk, cheese & eggs (+0.15) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.15) and garments (-0.11) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (1.5%), housing and food (0.8% each), and the lowest were recreation & culture (-0.4%), hotels & restaurants (-0.2%) and communications (-0.1%). In particular, fuels for transport (+0.22 percentage points), heating oil (+0.09) and milk, cheese & eggs (+0.04) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays (-0.06), accommodation services (-0.05) and rents (-0.03) had the biggest downward impacts.