The FINANCIAL -- Eurozone inflation rose again in August to 2.6 percent, the EU statistics agency confirmed on Friday.

After holding steady at an annualised 2.4 percent over the three previous months, the figures from the Eurostat agency marked the 20th consecutive month that inflation came in above the ECB's medium-term inflation target of just below but close to 2.0 percent.

As EUbusiness reported, across the 27-nation European Union, annual inflation was 2.7 percent in August, up from 2.5 percent in July.

Lowest inflation rates in the EU in August were in Sweden (0.9 percent), Greece (1.2 percent) and Latvia (1.9 percent).

The highest were recorded in Hungary (6.0 percent), Cyprus (4.5 percent) and Estonia (4.2 percent).

The lowest 12-month averages up to August 2012 were registered in Sweden (1.0 percent), Ireland and Greece (both 1.8 percent), and the highest in Hungary (5.1 percent), Estonia (4.5 percent) and Slovakia (4.1 percent).

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