Euro zone annual inflation down to 1.2% in April
Euro zone annual inflation was 1.2 per cent in April, down from 1.7 per cent a month earlier, European Union’s statistics board Eurostat said on May 16. The annual inflation in the EU as a whole in April was 1.4 per cent, down from 1.9 per cent in March.
A year earlier, inflation was 2.6 per cent in the euro zone and 2.7 per cent in the EU as a whole (in UK’s case, data was not available and Eurostat estimates were used to calculate the EU figure).
In April 2013, the lowest annual rates were observed in Greece (0.6 per cent deflation), Latvia (0.4 per cent deflation) and Sweden (zero per cent inflation), and the highest in Romania (4.4 per cent), Estonia (3.4 per cent) and the Netherlands (2.8 per cent).
In monthly terms, seven countries reported deflation in April and four countries reported flat inflation. The euro zone reported 0.1 per cent deflation in April and the EU as a whole had zero per cent inflation.
Bulgaria reported earlier this week monthly deflation of 0.4 per cent in April and the annual figure at the end of the month was 0.9 per cent.
(This is the harmonised consumer price index used by Bulgaria’s National Statistics Institute to compare inflation to the rest of the EU. The inflation figures calculated using the institute’s own methodology were 0.4 per cent deflation for the month and two per cent inflation on an annual basis.)
(Illustration: svilen001/sxc.hu)
