Annual inflation in the euro area was 1.2 percent in April this year, down from 1.7 percent in March, according to a report released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In April 2012, the annual inflation rate was 2.6 percent. Meanwhile, monthly inflation was -0.1 percent in April of the current year.
Meanwhile, in the European Union (EU-27) annual inflation was 1.4 percent in April, down from the 1.9 percent recorded in March. In the same month of the previous year, the annual inflation rate in the EU-27 was 2.7 percent, while monthly inflation was 0.0 percent in April this year.
In April, annual inflation in the EU-27 fell in 24 states, rose in one and remained stable in one, as compared with March of the current year. In April, the lowest annual inflation rates were observed in Greece (-0.6%), Latvia (-0.4%) and Sweden (0.0%), and the highest in Romania (4.4%), Estonia (3.4%) and the Netherlands (2.8%).
The lowest 12-month averages up to the end of April this year were registered in Greece (0.4%), Sweden (0.8%) and Latvia (1.3%), and the highest in Hungary (4.6%), Romania (4.1%) and Estonia (4.0%).