17/12/2021 (Agence Europe) – The annual inflation rate in the euro area was 4.9% in November, up from 4.1% in October, according to data published by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) on Friday 17 December. In the European Union, it was 5.2% in November, compared to 4.4% in October. The lowest annual rates were observed in Malta (2.4%), Portugal (2.6%) and France (3.4%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Lithuania (9.3%), Estonia (8.6%) and Hungary (7.5%). Inflation rose to 3.9% in Italy, 5.5% in Spain and 6.0% in Germany. Compared with October, annual inflation rose in 26 Member States. In November, the largest contributions to the inflation rate came from energy (+2.57 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+1.16 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.64 pp) and food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.49 pp). (MB)