Inflation rate stabilising at eurozone monthly levels

Malta's inflation rate continued to drop last month, hitting one of the lowest monthly levels in the past years at 0.7 per cent, lower than the monthly euro area average of 0.9 per cent.

However, according to the latest inflation figures released by Eurostat, Malta's 12-month average inflation rate is still the highest in the 16-member euro area, although it has now been joined by financially troubled Greece at 1.5 per cent.

The average inflation rate in the euro area in the past 12 months, particularly due to the recession, remained at very low levels, in the region of 0.3 per cent.

The EU statistical office said that, on a month-on-month level, Malta's inflation rate in February went down by half a percentage point from 1.2 per cent in January to 0.7 per cent in February. On the other hand, inflation in the euro area only dropped by 0.1 per cent from one per cent to 0.9 per cent. The lowest inflation across the EU was seen in Latvia (-4.3 per cent), Ireland (-2.4 per cent) and Lithuania (-0.6 per cent), while the highest inflation was registered in Hungary (5.6 per cent), Romania (4.5 per cent) and Poland (3.4 per cent).

The lowest 12-month averages up to February were registered in Ireland (-2.2 per cent), Portugal (-0.9 per cent) and Estonia (-0.6 per cent), and the highest in Romania (5.3 per cent), Hungary (4.6 per cent) and Poland (4 per cent).