Annual inflation in the euro area was 2.0 percent in January this year, down from 2.2 percent in December 2012, according to a report released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In January 2012, the annual inflation rate was 2.7 percent. Meanwhile, monthly inflation was -0.1 percent in January of the current year.
Meanwhile, in the European Union (EU-27) annual inflation was 2.1 percent in January, down from 2.3 percent recorded in December. In the same month of the previous year, the annual inflation rate in the EU-27 was 2.9 percent, while monthly inflation was -0.8 percent in January this year.
In January, annual inflation in the EU-27 fell in 23 states, rose in three and remained stable in one, compared with December 2012. In January, the lowest annual inflation rates were observed in Greece (0.0%), Portugal (0.4%) and Latvia (0.6%), and the highest in Romania (5.1%), Estonia (3.7%) and the Netherlands (3.2%).
The lowest 12-month averages up to the end of January this year were registered in Greece and Sweden (both 0.9%) and Ireland (1.9%), and the highest in Hungary (5.4%), Estonia (4.1%), and Romania and Slovakia (both 3.6%).