December 2013: Euro area annual inflation down to 0.8% - EU stable at 1%

2014-01-19

Euro area annual inflation was 0.8% in December 2013, down from 0.9% in November. A year earlier the rate was 2.2%. Monthly inflation was 0.3% in December 2013.

European Union annual inflation was 1.0% in December 2013, stable compared with November. A year earlier the rate was 2.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.3% in December 2013.

These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In December 2013, the lowest annual rates were observed in Greece (-1.8%), Cyprus (-1.3%), Bulgaria (-0.9%) and Latvia (-0.4%), and the highest in Estonia, Austria and the United Kingdom (all 2.0%) and Finland (1.9%). Compared with November 2013, annual inflation fell in nine Member States, remained stable in four and rose in fourteen. The lowest 12-month average rates4 up to December 2013 were registered in Greece (-0.9%), Latvia (0.0%), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal and Sweden (all 0.4%), and the highest in Estonia and Romania (both 3.2%), the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (both 2.6%).

The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from electricity (+0.11 percentage points), tobacco (+0.08) and restaurants & cafés (+0.05), while telecommunications (-0.14), fuels for transport (-0.13) and medical & paramedical services (-0.07) had the biggest downward impacts.

Source: European Union