EU, eurozone annual inflation down in September

By Gokhan Ergocun

DUBAI (AA) - The annual inflation dropped to 4.3% in the euro area and 4.9% in the EU in September, from 5.2% and 5.9% in August, Eurostat revealed on Wednesday.

A year earlier, the annual rates were 9.9% for the eurozone and 10.9% in the EU, the 27-member bloc's statistical authority said.

The lowest annual inflation rates were seen in the Netherlands (-0.3%), Denmark (0.6%) and Belgium (0.7%), while the highest annual rates were posted by Hungary (12.2%), Romania (9.2%) and Slovakia (9.0%).

"Compared with August, annual inflation fell in twenty-one Member States, remained stable in one and rose in five," it added.

In September, the highest contribution to the annual inflation rate in the eurozone came from services with 2.05 percentage points, followed by food, alcohol & tobacco with 1.78 percentage points.