• Euro area annual inflation was 1.5% in April 2010, up from 1.4% in March. A year earlier the rate was 0.6%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in April 2010.

EU annual inflation was 2.0% in April 2010, up from 1.9% in March. A year earlier the rate was 1.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.4% in April 2010.

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

Inflation in the EU Member States

In April 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (-2.8%), Ireland (-2.5%) and Lithuania (0.2%), and the highest in Hungary (5.7%), Greece (4.7%) and Romania (4.2%), Malta stood at 0.8%. Compared with March 2010, annual inflation fell in six Member States, remained stable in three and rose in seventeen.

The lowest 12-month averages up to April 2010 were registered in Ireland (-2.5%), Portugal (-0.7%), Estonia and Latvia (both -0.6%), and the highest in Hungary (5.0%), Romania (4.9%) and Poland (3.8%), Malta stood at 0.9%.

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in April 2010 were transport (5.9%) and alcohol & tobacco (4.2%) while the lowest annual rates were observed for recreation & culture (-1.0%), communications (-0.6%) and food (-0.2%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.75 percentage points), heating oil (+0.21) and tobacco (+0.11) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while gas (-0.14) and package holidays (-0.11) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (3.2%), transport (0.8%) and housing (0.6%), while the lowest were recreation & culture (-1.1%), communications (-0.2%) and education (-0.1%). In particular, garments (+0.14 percentage points) and fuels for transport (+0.10) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays (-0.11) had the biggest downward impact.

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