According to Eurostat, the EU´s Statistical Office, the inflation rate in Europe stands unchanged at 2.1 percent. The same goes for the annual inflation rate in the Eurozone which did not change since January 2007 and amounted to 1.8% in February. One year earlier inflation in the Eurozone had been 2.3%.
The lowest annual inflation rates in February 2007 were registered in Malta (0.8%), France, Cyprus and Finland (1.2% each), whereas the highest were those in Hungary (9.0%), Latvia (7.2%), Bulgaria and Estonia (4.6% each). The lowest average inflation rates over twelve months until February 2007 were registered in Finland (1.3%), Poland (1.4%), the Netherlands (1.6%) and Sweden (1.6%), whereas the highest rates were to be found in Bulgaria (6.9%), Latvia (6.6%) and Rumania (5.8%).
Those inflation rate components which rose most over 12 months until February 2007 were prices for alcohol and tobacco (4.1%), education and instruction (3.3%) and accommodation (3.1%), whereas the lowest price increases were registered in fields such as communication services (-1.7%), leisure and culture (0.2%) and traffic (1.0%). With regard to sub-indices restaurant and café businesses as well as tobacco (each 0.1%) contributed most to overall inflation, whereas fuels (-0.22) and telecommunication (-0.11%) were those factors less pushing total inflation.
Those components which most pushed prices up on a monthly basis were leisure and culture (1.0%), health care and restaurant and hotel industry (both 0.6%), those lowering monthly inflation were food stuffs (-0.2%) and communication services (-0.1%). Particularly price boosting were package tours (+0.07%) and hotel services (+0.03%), whereas products such as fish, vegetables and meat (-0.02%) were those components which most kept prices from rising. 