Malta posts highest monthly rise last month

Malta posted the highest monthly rise in the cost of living index last April when compared to the other 15 members of the euro area.

Eurostat figures show that Malta registered a monthly inflation rate of 2.6 per cent in April compared to the average 0.5 per cent in the eurozone during the same month.

Yet, overall, Malta still kept its annual average inflation on the low side although higher than the euro area median.

According to Eurostat, Malta's 12-month average inflation rate in April stood at 0.9 per cent, more than twice the euro area, which, on average, saw its inflation rate grow by 0.4 per cent in the past year.

Some eurozone members registered a higher inflation rate than Malta over the past 12 months.

In April, Greece topped the list at two per cent, followed by Finland (1.4 per cent) and Slovenia (1 per cent).

EU-wide, Eurostat said that, this April, the lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (-2.8 per cent), Ireland (-2.5 per cent) and Lithuania (0.2 per cent) and the highest in Hungary (5.7 per cent), Greece (4.7 per cent) and Romania (4.2 per cent).

Compared with March, annual inflation fell in six member states, remained stable in three and rose in seventeen.

The lowest 12-month averages up to April 2010 were seen in Ireland (-2.5 per cent), Portugal (-0.7 per cent), Estonia and Latvia (both -0.6 per cent) and the highest in Hungary (5 per cent), Romania (4.9 per cent) and Poland (3.8 per cent).