In May 2008, the lowest annual rates were observed in the Netherlands (2.1%), Portugal (2.8%) and Germany (3.1%), and the highest in Latvia (17.7%), Bulgaria (14.0%) and Lithuania (12.3%). Compared with April 2008, annual inflation rose in twenty-one Member States, remained stable in three and fell in two.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to May 2008 were registered in the Netherlands (1.7%), Denmark and Malta (both 2.3%), and the highest in Latvia (13.8%), Bulgaria (10.9%) and Estonia (9.3%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in May 2008 were food (6.4%), transport (5.9%) and housing (5.7%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.7%), recreation & culture (0.1%) and clothing (0.7%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.55 percentage points), heating oil (+0.35) and milk, cheese & eggs (+0.21) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while cars (-0.18), telecommunications and garments (-0.17 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (1.8%), housing (0.8%) and recreation & culture (0.7%), and the lowest were communications (-0.2%), health (0.0%) and clothing (0.1%). In particular, fuels for transport (+0.23 percentage points), heating oil (+0.09) and package holidays (+0.06) had the largest upward impacts, while cars, milk, cheese & eggs, garments, rents and telecommunications (-0.03 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
