Euro area annual inflation was -0.1% in October 2009, up from -0.3% in September. A year earlier the rate was 3.2%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in October 2009.

EU annual inflation was 0.5% in October 2009, up from 0.3% in September. A year earlier the rate was 3.7%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in October 2009.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In October 2009, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-2.8%), Estonia (-2.1%) and Portugal (-1.6%), and the highest in Romania (4.3%), Hungary (4.2%) and Poland (3.8%). Compared with September 2009, annual inflation fell in eleven Member States and rose in fifteen.

The lowest 12-month averages up to October 2009 were registered in Ireland (-1.0%), Portugal (-0.6%) and Luxembourg (-0.1%), and the highest in Romania (5.9%), Lithuania (5.4%) and Latvia (5.3%). Malta stood at -0.5%

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in October 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (4.4%), miscellaneous goods & services (2.2%) and education (1.5%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-2.0%), housing (-1.6%) and food (-1.5%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, tobacco (+0.14 percentage points), restaurants & cafés (+0.12) and rents (+0.11) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-0.42), gas (-0.27) and heating oil (-0.24) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (3.1%) and education (1.1%), while the lowest was recreation & culture (-0.3%). In particular, garments (+0.16 percentage points), footwear and heating oil (+0.03 each) had the largest upward impacts, while fuels for transport (-0.04) and package holidays (-0.03) had the biggest downward impacts.

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

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