Euro area annual inflation was 0.5% in November 2009, up from -0.1% in October. A year earlier the rate was 2.1%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in November 2009.

EU annual inflation was 1.0% in November 2009, up from 0.5% in October. A year earlier the rate was 2.8%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in November 2009.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In November 2009, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-2.8%), Estonia (-2.1%) and Latvia (-1.4%), and the highest in Hungary (5.2%), Romania (4.6%) and Poland (3.8%). Compared with October 2009, annual inflation fell in one Member State, remained stable in three and rose in twenty-three.

The lowest 12-month averages up to November 2009 were registered in Ireland (-1.4%), Portugal (-0.8%) and Spain (-0.2%), and the highest in Romania (5.7%), Lithuania (4.8%) and Latvia (4.2%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in November 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (4.5%), miscellaneous goods & services (2.2%) and education (1.6%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for food (-1.2%), housing (-1.0%) and communications (-0.7%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, tobacco (+0.13 percentage points), fuels for transport (+0.12) and rents (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while gas (-0.30), heating oil (-0.11), milk, cheese & eggs and cars (-0.09 each) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (0.7%), alcohol & tobacco (0.5%) and clothing (0.4%), while the lowest were communications (-0.5%), recreation & culture and hotels & restaurants (-0.4% each). In particular, fuels for transport (+0.12 percentage points), heating oil, tobacco and vegetables (+0.02 each) had the largest upward impacts, while accommodation services (-0.05), package holidays (-0.04), air transport (-0.03) and telecommunications (-0.02) had the biggest downward impacts.