17/03/2023 (Agence Europe) – Annual inflation in the euro area was 8.5% in February 2023, compared to 8.6% in January, according to figures released by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) on Friday 17 March. In the EU it was 9.9%, compared with 10.0% in January. The lowest annual rates were observed in Luxembourg (4.8%), Belgium (5.4%) and Spain (6.0%), while the highest rates were recorded in Hungary (25.8%), Latvia (20.1%) and the Czech Republic (18.4%). Price inflation was 7.3% in France, 9.3% in Germany and 9.8% in Italy. Compared to January, it decreased in fifteen Member States and increased in ten. The largest contributions to inflation came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+3.10 percentage points), services (+2.02 pp) and industrial goods excluding energy (+1.74 pp). (MB)