In October 2007, the lowest annual rates were observed in Malta and the Netherlands (1.6% each), Denmark and Finland (1.8% each), and the highest rates in Latvia (13.2%), Bulgaria (10.6%) and Estonia (8.7%). Compared with September 2007, annual inflation rose in twenty-five Member States, remained stable in one and fell in one.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to October 2007 were registered in Malta (0.3%), France (1.4%), Denmark, Finland and Sweden (1.5% each), and the highest in Latvia (8.9%), Hungary (7.8%) and Bulgaria (6.6%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in October 2007 were education (9.5%), transport (4.1%) and food (3.8%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-2.1%), recreation & culture (0.0%) and clothing (1.1%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.30 percentage points), milk, cheese & eggs (+0.11) and bread & cereals (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.14), garments (-0.08), IT equipment and audio-visual equipment (-0.07 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (3.1%), education (1.5%) and food (1.2%), and the lowest were communications (-0.5%), recreation & culture (-0.4%) and hotels & restaurants (0.0%). In particular, garments (+0.14 percentage points), milk, cheese & eggs (+0.07) and footwear (+0.04) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays (-0.04), accommodation services and telecommunications (-0.03 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
