Inflation in the EU Member States
In January 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (-3.3%), Ireland (-2.4%) and Estonia (-1.0%), and the highest in Hungary (6.2%), Romania (5.2%) and Poland (3.9%). Compared with December 2009, annual inflation rose in seventeen Member States, remained stable in one and fell in nine.
The lowest 12-month averages up to January 2010 were registered in Ireland (-2.0%), Portugal (-0.9%) and Estonia (-0.3%), and the highest in Romania (5.4%), Hungary (4.3%) and Poland (4.0%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in January 2010 were transport (4.9%), alcohol & tobacco (4.6%) and miscellaneous goods & services (1.9%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for food (-1.2%), communications (-0.9%), clothing, housing and recreation & culture (all -0.3%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.62 percentage points), tobacco (+0.13) and heating oil (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while gas (-0.33), cars (-0.10) and milk, cheese & eggs (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (1.0%), food (0.6%) and housing (0.5%), while the lowest were clothing (-11.3%), recreation & culture (-2.3%), household equipment and hotels & restaurants (both -0.7%). In particular, fuels for transport (+0.18 percentage points) and vegetables (+0.11) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.61), package holidays (-0.20) and footwear (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts.
