Green: EU countries using the euro: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain Mauve: EU countries not using the euro

Eurozone deflation ended in November with a rise in consumer price inflation for the first time in 7 months.

The European Central Bank said earlier in November that professional forecasters project Eurozone inflation will average 0.3% this year and 1.2% in 2010.

The Bank will publish its latest forecasts for growth and inflation, on Thursday.

Eurozone annual inflation is expected to be 0.6% in November 2009 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union. It was -0.1% in October.

Computation of flash estimates

Eurozone inflation is measured by the Monetary Union Index of Consumer Prices (MUICP). To compute the MUICP flash estimates, Eurostat uses early price information relating to the reference month from Member States for which data are available4 as well as early information about energy prices.

The flash estimation procedure for the MUICP combines historical information with partial information on price developments in the most recent months to give a total index for the Eurozone. No detailed breakdown is available. Experience has shown the procedure to be reliable (18 times exactly anticipating the inflation rate and 6 times differing by 0.1 over the last two years).

The Member States of the Eurozone are Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.