February Euro Area Inflation Up To 2.4% EU Stable At 2.8%

Euro area annual inflation was 2.4% in February 2011, up from 2.3% in January. A year earlier the rate was 0.8%. Monthly inflation was 0.4% in February 2011, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union..

EU annual inflation was 2.8% in February 2011, unchanged compared with January. A year earlier the rate was 1.5%. Monthly inflation was 0.4% in February 2011.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In February 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (0.9%), Sweden (1.2%) and France (1.8%), and the highest in Romania (7.6%), Estonia (5.5%) and Bulgaria (4.6%). Compared with January 2011, annual inflation rose in fifteen Member States, remained stable in three and fell in eight.

The lowest 12-month averages up to February 2011 were registered in Ireland (-1.1%), Latvia (0.0%) and the Netherlands (1.2%), and the highest in Romania (6.5%), Greece (5.0%) and Hungary (4.4%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in February 2011 were transport (5.7%), housing (4.9%) and alcohol & tobacco (3.5%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for clothing (-2.6%), communications
(-0.4%) and recreation & culture (0.0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.62 percentage points), heating oil (+0.23), electricity (+0.11) and gas (+0.10) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while garments (-0.25) and telecommunications (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (0.9%), food, housing, transport and hotels & restaurants (all 0.5%), while the lowest were clothing (-0.5%), alcohol & tobacco (0.0%), health and education (both 0.1%). In particular, package holidays (+0.06 percentage points), accommodation services and heating oil (+0.03 each) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.03), restaurants & cafés and footwear (-0.02 each) had the biggest downward impacts.