January 17, 2019

Euro area annual inflation declined for December 2018 to 1.6% relative to 1.9% in November according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The rate twelve months earlier was 1.4%. the European Union on the other hand posted an inflation rate of 1.7% for December 2018, a reduction from the 2.0% recorded for November 2018.

According to Eurostat, “the lowest annual rates were registered in Greece and Portugal (both 0.6%) and Denmark (0.7%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (3.3%), Romania (3.0%) and Hungary (2.8%). Compared with November 2018, annual inflation fell in twenty-two Member States, remained stable in three and rose in three.”

The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate in December came from services (+0.58 percentage points, pp), followed by energy (+0.53 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.34 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.12 pp).

 

Annual Inflation rates (%) in December 2018, in ascending order