Euro area inflation remains at 1.9 percent

Euro area inflation remains at 1.9 percent

2010-12-17 11:39:47 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The euro area annual inflation was 1.9 percent in November, unchanged compared with October, but up 1.4 percent from the previous year, a European Union (EU) report released on Thursday said.

The EU's statistical office Eurostat showed that the monthly inflation was 0.1 percent in November while the EU annual inflation was 2.3 percent, unchanged compared with the previous month.

In November, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-0.8 percent), Slovakia (1.0 percent) and the Netherlands (1.4 percent). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (7.7 percent), Estonia (5.0 percent) and Greece (4.8 percent).

Compared with October, annual inflation rose in ten Member States, remained stable in five and fell in twelve. The lowest 12-month averages up to November 2010 were registered in Ireland (-1.8 percent), Latvia (-1.5 percent) and Slovakia (0.6 percent) and the highest in Romania (5.8 percent), Hungary (4.8 percent) and Greece (4.5 percent).

Furthermore, the main components of the highest annual rates in November were transport (3.8 percent), alcohol & tobacco (3.4 percent) and housing (3.3 percent). The lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-0.8 percent), recreation and culture (0.0 percent) and household equipment (0.7 percent).

According to Eurostat, concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.37 percentage points), heating oil (+0.13) and gas (+0.09) had the largest upward impact on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.09) had the biggest downward impact.

The main components of the highest monthly rates were clothing (0.9 percent), alcohol & tobacco (0.5 percent) and food (0.4 percent), while the lowest were hotels & restaurants (-0.6 percent), recreation and culture (-0.5 percent) and communications (-0.2 percent).

In particular, fuels for transport (+0.06 percentage points) and garments (+0.05) had the largest upward impacts, while accommodation services (-0.07) and package holidays (-0.05) had the biggest downward impacts.

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