EU annual inflation was 2.0% in April 2010, up from 1.9% in March. A year earlier the rate was 1.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.4% in April 2010.
Inflation in the EU Member States
In April 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (-2.8%), Ireland (-2.5%) and Lithuania (0.2%), and the highest in Hungary (5.7%), Greece (4.7%) and Romania (4.2%). Compared with March 2010, annual inflation fell in six Member States, remained stable in three and rose in seventeen.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to April 2010 were registered in Ireland (-2.5%), Portugal (-0.7%), Estonia and Latvia (both -0.6%), and the highest in Hungary (5.0%), Romania (4.9%) and Poland (3.8%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in April 2010 were transport (5.9%) and alcohol & tobacco (4.2%) while the lowest annual rates were observed for recreation & culture (-1.0%), communications (-0.6%) and food (-0.2%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.75 percentage points), heating oil (+0.21) and tobacco (+0.11) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while gas (-0.14) and package holidays (-0.11) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (3.2%), transport (0.8%) and housing (0.6%), while the lowest were recreation & culture (-1.1%), communications (-0.2%) and education (-0.1%). In particular, garments (+0.14 percentage points) and fuels for transport (+0.10) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays (-0.11) had the biggest downward impact.
