Brussels, 16/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - In August 2008, euro area annual inflation was 3.8%, down from 4.0% in July. A year earlier the rate was 1.7%. Monthly inflation was -0.1% in August 2008. EU annual inflation was 4.2% in August 2008, down from 4.4% in July. A year earlier the rate was 1.9%. Monthly inflation was -0.1% in August 2008. The lowest annual rates were in the Netherlands (3.0%), Portugal (3.1%) and Ireland (3.2%), and the highest in Latvia (15.6%), Lithuania (12.2%) and Bulgaria (11.8%). Compared with July 2008, annual inflation fell in 19 member states, remained stable in three and rose in four.
The main components with the highest annual rates in August 2008 were housing and transport (both 6.3%) and food (6.2%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-2.5%), clothing (0.4%) and recreation and culture (0.5%). In terms of detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.52 percentage points), heating oil (+0.29) and milk, cheese and eggs (+0.19) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.20), clothing (-0.18) and cars (-0.17) had the biggest downward impacts. With regard to monthly rates, fuels for transport (-0.28), heating oil (-0.10), vegetables and fruit (-0.05 each) had the biggest downward impacts. (A.B./transl.rt)