Euro area annual inflation was 1.1% in January 2009, down from 1.6% in December. A year earlier the rate was 3.2%. Monthly inflation was -0.8% in January 2009.

EU annual inflation was 1.7% in January 2009, down from 2.2% in December. A year earlier the rate was 3.4%. Monthly inflation was -0.6% in January 2009.

Inflation in the EU Member States

In January 2009, the lowest annual rates were observed in Luxembourg (0.0%), Portugal (0.1%), Spain and France (0.8% each), and the highest in Latvia (9.7%), Lithuania (9.5%) and Romania (6.8%), Malta stood at 3.1%. Compared with December 2008, annual inflation fell in twenty-four Member States, remained stable in one and rose in two.

The lowest 12-month averages up to January 2009 were registered in the Netherlands (2.2%), Portugal (2.4%) and Germany (2.6%), and the highest in Latvia (14.7%), Bulgaria (11.4%) and Lithuania (11.0%), Malta stood at 4.6%.

Euro area

The main components with the highest annual rates in January 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (3.2%), housing (3.1%) and hotels & restaurants (3.0%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-3.2%), communications (-1.9%) and clothing (-0.6%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, gas (+0.22 percentage points), restaurants & cafés (+0.17) and electricity (+0.12) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-0.89), heating oil (-0.21) and garments (-0.11) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were alcohol & tobacco (0.6%), food and housing (0.5% each), while the lowest were clothing (-10.6%), recreation & culture (-2.0%) and hotels & restaurants (-0.6%). In particular, restaurants & cafés (+0.08 percentage points) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.57), package holidays (-0.20) and footwear (-0.10) had the biggest downward impacts.

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

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