Euro area annual inflation was -0.7% in July 2009, down from -0.1% in June. A year earlier the rate was 4.0%. Monthly inflation was -0.7% in July 2009.

EU annual inflation was 0.2% in July 2009, down from 0.6% in June. A year earlier the rate was 4.4%. Monthly inflation was -0.5% in July 2009.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In July 2009, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-2.6%), Belgium (-1.7%) and Luxembourg (-1.5%), and the highest in Romania (5.0%), Hungary (4.9%) and Poland (4.5%), Malta stood at 0.8%. Compared with June 2009, annual inflation fell in twenty Member States, remained stable in one and rose in five.

The lowest 12-month averages up to July 2009 were registered in Ireland and Portugal (both 0.5%), and in Germany, France and Luxembourg (all 1.1%), and the highest in Latvia (8.8%), Lithuania (7.8%) and Romania (6.6%), Malta stood at 3.9%.

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in July 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (4.4%), miscellaneous goods & services (2.1%) and household equipment (1.7%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-5.5%), housing (-1.8%) and food (-1.0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, restaurants & cafés (+0.19 percentage points), rents (+0.16) and tobacco (+0.14) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-1.08), heating oil (-0.48) and gas (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (1.3%), hotels & restaurants (1.0%) and alcohol & tobacco (0.5%), while the lowest were clothing (-9.8%), food (-0.6%) and housing (-0.5%). In particular, package holidays (+0.16 percentage points), accommodation services (+0.11) and rents (+0.06) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.52), footwear (-0.11) and gas (-0.07) had the biggest downward impacts.

These figures come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

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