EU: Annual inflation rate up in January

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - Consumer prices in the EU increased to 1.2% year-on-year in January, the bloc’s statistics office said on Tuesday.

The figure was 0.3% a month earlier and 1.7% in January last year, the Eurostat said.

In euro area, the annual inflation rate was 0.9% in January, up from minus 0.3% compared to the previous month. A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%.

The eurozone/euro area, or EA19, represents member states that use the single currency – euro – while EU27 includes all member countries of the bloc.

Compared with a month earlier, annual inflation fell in three member states, remained stable in six, and rose in 18.

The lowest rate was seen in Greece at minus 2.4%, followed by Slovenia and the Greek Cypriot administration with minus 0.9% and minus 0.8%, respectively.

Poland (3.6%), Hungary (2.9%), and Czechia (2.2%) posted the highest inflation rates in December.

In January, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.65 percentage points), followed by non-energy industrial goods (+0.37 percentage points), and food, alcohol and tobacco (+0.30 percentage points).​​​​​​​