EU's annual inflation rate stable in September

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Consumer prices in European Union rose 2.2 percent year-on-year in September, the EU's statistical authority revealed on Wednesday.

In a statement, Eurostat said the 28-member bloc's annual inflation rate in September was stable compared to the August.

The rate was 1.8 percent in the same month last year, the statement added.

Among all member countries, the lowest annual rates were seen in Denmark (0.5 percent), Greece (1.1 percent) and Ireland (1.2 percent).

The highest rate were recorded in Romania (4.7 percent), Hungary (3.7 percent) and Bulgaria (3.6 percent), it noted.

"Compared with August 2018, annual inflation [in September] fell in nine Member States, remained stable in four and rose in fourteen," the statement read.

According to the official data, the United Kingdom's inflation figure for September has not been announced yet.

Eurostat also reported that the euro area annual inflation rate was 2.1 percent last month, up from 2 percent in the previous month, while it was 1.5 percent in September 2017.

The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents member states that use the single currency -- euro -- while the EU28 includes all member countries of the bloc.

"In September 2018, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (0.9 percentage points, pp), followed by services (0.6 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (0.5 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (0.08 pp)," the Eurostat said.

Over the last decade, the highest annual inflation rate in the EU was seen in July 2008, up 4.4 percent. The lowest was in January 2015, at minus 0.5 percent, when prices were in fact dropping.