Brussels, 15/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The eurozone's annual inflation rate was -0.3% in September 2009, compared to -0.2% in August. One year earlier, it was 3.6%, Eurostat confirms in data published on Thursday 15 October. In the EU27, the annual rate of inflation was 0.3% in September 2009 compared to 0.6% in August and 4.2% one year earlier.
Compared to August 2009, annual inflation fell in 23 member states, remained stable in one and increased in three. The lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-3.0%), Portugal (-1.8%) and Estonia (-1.7%), and the highest were recorded in Romania (4.9%), Hungary (4.8%) and Poland (4.0%). The average rates over 12 months until September 2009 were lowest in Ireland (-0.5%), Portugal (-0.3%) and Luxembourg (0.2%), and the highest were in Latvia (6.5%) as well as in Lithuania and Romania (6.2% each).
Taking components separately, the highest annual rates in September 2009 were alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.4%), other goods and services (2.3%), as well as household equipment (1.5%). The lowest annual rates were noted for transport (-3.7%), housing (-1.6%) and foodstuffs (-1.3%). At the level of detailed sub-indices, restaurants and cafés (+0.15 percentage points), tobacco (+0.14) and rents (+0.13) had the greatest impact on the rise in overall rates, while fuel for transport (-0.70), liquid fuels (-0.34) and gas (-0.19) had the greatest downward impact. (A.B./transl.jl)