Eurozone annual inflation was 2.2 per cent in December 2010, up from 1.9 per cent in November, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

A year earlier the rate was 0.9 per cent. Monthly inflation was 0.6 per cent in December 2010. EU3 (France, Germany and the UK) annual inflation was 2.6 per cent in December 2010, up from 2.3 per cent in November. A year earlier the rate was 1.5 per cent. Monthly inflation was 0.6 per cent in December 2010.

In December 2010, the lowest annual rates throughout the EU were observed in Slovakia (1.3 per cent), the Netherlands (1.8 per cent), Germany and Cyprus (both 1.9 per cent), and the highest in Romania (7.9 per cent), Estonia (5.4 per cent) and Greece (5.2 per cent). Compared with November 2010, annual inflation rose in all 25 member states for which data are available.

The lowest 12-month averages up to December 2010 were registered in Latvia (-1.2 per cent), Slovakia (0.7 per cent) and the Netherlands (0.9 per cent), and the highest in Romania (6.1 per cent), Greece an-3d Hungary (both 4.7 per cent).

The main components with the highest annual rates in December 2010 were transport (5.2 per cent), housing (3.8 per cent) and alcohol and tobacco (3.6 per cent), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-0.7 per cent) and recreation and culture (-0.1 per cent).

Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.58 percentage points) and heating oil (+0.19) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.10) and garments (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation and culture (1.9 per cent), transport (1.4 per cent) and hotels and restaurants (one per cent), while the lowest were clothing (-0.8 per cent), health, communications and education (all zero per cent).

In particular, package holidays (+0.18 percentage points) and fuels for transport (+0.15) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.08) had the biggest downward impact.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.