Romania’s annual inflation rate was 3.4 percent this July, the second highest in the EU, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In terms of the highest average rates reported over the past 12 months, Romania ranked in the first position in the EU with a 4.5 percent annual inflation rate, according to the same source.
In July 2013, the lowest annual rates were reported by Greece (-0.5 percent), Bulgaria (0.0 percent) and Denmark (0.4 percent), and the highest in Estonia (3.9 percent), Romania (3.4 percent) and the Netherlands (3.1 percent), said Eurostat. Compared to the previous month, annual inflation fell in seventeen member states, maintained the same level in two and went up in nine.
The lowest 12-month average rates up to July 2013 were registered in Greece (0.1 percent), Sweden (0.7 percent) and Latvia (0.8 percent), and the highest in Romania (4.5 percent), Estonia (3.9 percent) and Croatia (3.7 percent).
Overall, euro area annual inflation was 1.6 percent this July, stable compared with June. A year earlier the rate stood at 2.4 percent. Monthly inflation was -0.5 percent in July 2013.
EU’s annual inflation was 1.7 percent in July 2013, stable compared with June. A year earlier the rate was 2.5 percent. Monthly inflation was -0.4 percent in July 2013.
Fruit (+0.12 percentage points), vegetables (+0.09) and tobacco (+0.08) generated the largest upward impacts to the euro area annual inflation this July, while telecommunications (-0.18), medical & paramedical services (-0.08) and fuels for transport (-0.06) had the biggest downward impacts.
Simona Bazavan