February average annual inflation 2.3% in the EU

February average annual inflation 2.3% in the EU

Office of National Statistics announced that inflation in the UK increased only by 0.3% in February 2003. This increase of 0.3% in February led the annual inflation rate to increase to 3% ad consequently resulted in being the highest rate of the last five years. It is emphasized that the rise in prices of seasonal fruits and vegetables as well as housing and fuel has led to such increase in February. The government in the UK is targeting an annual inflation rate of 2.5% for the year 2003. Meanwhile, as announced by the EU officials, the average annual inflation in 15 member states of the union is recorded as 2.3% in February. As per the data released by Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU, Germany recorded the lowest and Ireland the highest inflation rates in February. Following are the individual rates on country basis: Germany 1.3%, UK 1.4%, Belgium 1.6%, Austria 1.8%, Finland 2.1%, France 2.5%, Italy 2.6%, Denmark 2.9%, Holland and Luxembourg 3.2%, Sweden 3.3%, Spain 3.8%, Portugal 4.1%, Greece 4.2%, Ireland 5.1%.