Inflation in the euro area

Euro area annual inflation was -0.1% in March 20152 , up from -0.3% in February. In March 2014 the rate was 0.5%. European Union annual inflation was also -0.1% in March 2015, up from -0.3% in February. A year earlier the rate was 0.6%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In March 2015, negative annual rates were observed in twelve Member States. The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (-1.9%), Cyprus (-1.4%), Poland (-1.2%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (both -1.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Austria (0.9%), Romania (0.8%) and Sweden (0.7%). Compared with February 2015, annual inflation fell in three Member States, remained stable in three and rose in twenty-two. The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants & cafés (+0.11 percentage points), rents (+0.09 pp) and tobacco (+0.07 pp), while fuels for transport (-0.44 pp), heating oil (-0.16 pp) and telecommunications (-0.06 pp) had the biggest downward impacts. 

Source: Eurostat