The FINANCIAL — Euro area1 annual inflation was 1.7% in August 20072, down from 1.8% in July. A year earlier the rate was 2.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in August 2007. EU3 annual inflation was 1.9% in August 2007, down from 2.0% in July. A year earlier the rate was 2.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in August 2007.
These figures come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
Inflation in the EU Member States
In August 2007, the lowest annual rates were observed in Malta (0.6%), Denmark (0.9%) and the Netherlands (1.1%), and the highest rates in Latvia (10.2%), Bulgaria (9.3%) and Hungary (7.1%). Compared with July 2007, annual inflation rose in seven Member States, remained stable in four and fell in fifteen.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to August 2007 were in Malta (0.5%), France and Finland (both 1.3%); the highest were in Latvia and Hungary (both 7.7%) and Bulgaria (5.7%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in August 2007 were education (9.3%), alcohol & tobacco (3.8%) and hotels & restaurants (3.4%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.1%), recreation & culture (0.0%) and clothing (0.6%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, restaurants & cafés (+0.12 percentage points), tobacco (+0.09) and education (+0.07) had the largest upward impact on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-0.19), telecommunications (-0.09) and heating oil (-0.08) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (0.7%), alcohol & tobacco (0.5%) and hotels & restaurants (0.4%), and the lowest were transport (-0.5%), health (-0.4%) and recreation & culture (-0.1%). In particular, garments (+0.04 percentage points), accommodation services, tobacco and milk, cheese & eggs (+0.02 each) had the largest upward impact, while fuels for transport (-0.10), vegetables (-0.03) and fruit (-0.02) had the biggest downward impacts.
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