Luxembourg, 16/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - According to data published by Eurostat on Thursday, the eurozone annual inflation rate was 2.3% in August 2004, unchanged from July. A year earlier the rate was 2.1%. EU25 annual inflation was 2.3% in August 2004, unchanged from July. A year earlier the rate was 1.9%. Monthly inflation in the eurozone was 0.2% in August 2004, and 0.1% in the EU25.
In August 2004, the lowest annual rates were observed in Finland (0.3%), Denmark (0.9%), the Netherlands and Sweden (both 1.2%) and the United Kingdom (1.3%), and the highest rates were recorded in Latvia (7.8%), Hungary (7.2%), Slovakia (7.0%) and Poland (4.9%). The main components with the highest annual rates in August 2004 were alcohol and tobacco, and health (both 8.2%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communication (-2.5%) and recreation and culture (0.2%). Specifically, transport fuel had the largest upward impact on the headline rate (+0.30 percentage points), followed by tobacco (+0.27) and heating oil (+0.12), while telecommunication (-0.14), garments, cars and vegetables (-0.08 each) had the biggest downward impacts.