(LUXEMBOURG) – European Union annual inflation dropped to -0.2% in April 2016, down from 0.0% in March. The rate for March last year was also 0.0%, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.
In April 2016, negative annual rates were observed in seventeen Member States. The lowest annual rates were registered in Romania (-2.6%), Bulgaria (-2.5%) and Cyprus (-2.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Belgium (1.5%) and Sweden (1.0%). Compared with March 2016, annual inflation fell in thirteen Member States, remained stable in seven and rose in eight.
The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants & cafés (+0.13 percentage points), rents (+0.08 pp) and tobacco (+0.05 pp), while fuels for transport (-0.54 pp), heating oil (-0.22 pp) and gas (-0.13 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.
