Annual inflation down to -0.6% in the euro area

Euro area1 annual inflation was -0.6% in January 20152, down from -0.2% in December. This was the lowest rate recorded since July 2009. In January 2014 the rate was 0.8%. European Union1 annual inflation was -0.5% in January 2015, down from -0.1% in December.

A year earlier the rate was 0.9%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In January 2015, negative annual rates were observed in twenty-three Member States. The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (-2.8%) and Bulgaria (-2.3%). Positive annual rates were recorded in Malta (0.8%), Austria and Romania (both 0.5%), Sweden (0.4%) and the United Kingdom (0.3%). Compared with December 2014, annual inflation fell in almost all Member States, except Cyprus, Malta and Sweden.

The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants & cafés and rents (+0.14 percentage points each) and tobacco (+0.07 pp), while fuels for transport (-0.77 pp), heating oil (-0.24 pp) and telecommunications (-0.05 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.