Brussels, 16/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Inflation in the eurozone fell from 0.2% in July to 0.1% in August, according to the final figures published by the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, on Wednesday 16 September.
In the EU28, prices remained unchanged on an annual basis, compared with a rise of 0.2% in July. In August, Eurostat estimated that annual inflation in the eurozone was 0.2% (see EUROPE 11378).
In August, annual inflation was negative in eleven countries: Cyprus (-1.9%), Romania (-1.7%), Lithuania (-1.0%), Bulgaria (-0.8%), Slovenia (-0.6%), Spain (-0.5%), Greece and Poland (both -0.4%), Slovakia and Finland (both -0.2%) and Croatia (-0.1%). Prices remained unchanged in the United Kingdom, and low in France and Germany (both 0.1%). Only five member states saw inflation of above 0.5%, namely Malta (1.4%), Austria (0.9%), Belgium (0.8%), Portugal (0.7%) and Sweden (0.6%). Compared with July, annual inflation fell in fourteen countries, remained unchanged in four and rose in ten.
The strongest upward influences on eurozone inflation were from restaurants & cafés (+0.10 percentage points), vegetables (+0.09 pp) and tobacco (+0.08 pp), while fuel for transport (-0.55 pp), heating oil (-0.25 pp) and milk, cheese & eggs (-0.07 pp) had the biggest downward impacts. (Mathieu Bion)