Euro area annual inflation down to 2.5%

Euro area annual inflation was 2.5% in July 2011, down from 2.7% in June. A year earlier the rate was 1.7%. Monthly inflation was -0.6% in July 2011.

EU annual inflation was 2.9% in July 2011, down from 3.1% in June. A year earlier the rate was 2.1%. Monthly inflation was -0.5% in July 2011.

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

Inflation in the EU Member States

In July 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (1.0%), Slovenia (1.1%) and Sweden (1.6%), and the highest in Estonia (5.3%), Romania (4.9%) and Lithuania (4.6%). Compared with June 2011, annual inflation fell in sixteen Member States, remained stable in two and rose in nine.

The lowest 12-month averages4 up to July 2011 were registered in Ireland (0.3%), Sweden (1.6%), Czech Republic and the Netherlands (1.9% each), and the highest in Romania (7.6%), Estonia (4.9%) and Greece (4.3%).

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in July 2011 were transport (5.5%), housing (5.0%) and alcohol & tobacco (2.9%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for clothing (-2.9%), communications (-1.6%) and recreation & culture (0.4%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.51 percentage points), heating oil (+0.19) and electricity (+0.14) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while garments (-0.27), telecommunications (-0.14) and cars (-0.08) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (1.2%), hotels & restaurants (1.1%), transport and housing (0.6% each), while the lowest were clothing (-14.2%), household equipment (-0.6%) and communications (-0.4%). In particular, package holidays (+0.14 percentage points), accommodation services (+0.11), rents, air transport, fuels for transport and restaurants & cafés (+0.06 each) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.75), footwear (-0.18) and fruit (-0.05)had the biggest downward impacts.