Inflation in the EU Member States

In September 2009, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-3.0%), Portugal (-1.8%) and Estonia (-1.7%), and the highest in Romania (4.9%), Hungary (4.8%) and Poland (4.0%). Compared with August 2009, annual inflation fell in twenty-three Member States, remained stable in one and rose in three.

The lowest 12-month averages up to September 2009 were registered in Ireland (-0.5%), Portugal (-0.3%) and Luxembourg (0.2%), and the highest in Latvia (6.5%), Lithuania and Romania (both 6.2%).

Eurozone

The main components with the highest annual rates in September 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (4.4%), miscellaneous goods & services (2.3%) and household equipment (1.5%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-3.7%), housing (-1.6%) and food (-1.3%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, restaurants & cafés (+0.15 percentage points), tobacco (+0.14) and rents (+0.13) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-0.70), heating oil (-0.34) and gas (-0.19) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (6.5%), education (0.8%), miscellaneous goods & services and household equipment (both 0.3%), while the lowest were transport, recreation & culture and hotels & restaurants (all -1.2%). In particular, garments (+0.33 percentage points) and footwear (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays and accommodation services (-0.13 each) and fuels for transport (-0.10) had the biggest downward impacts.

The Eurozone initially included Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. Greece was included from January 2001, Slovenia from January 2007, Cyprus and Malta from January 2008 and Slovakia from January 2009. New Member States are integrated into the MUICP using a chain index formula.