EU annual inflation was 2.6% in December 2010, up from 2.3% in November. A year earlier the rate was 1.5%. Monthly inflation was 0.6% in December 2010. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Inflation in the EU Member States
In December 2010, the lowest annual rates were observed in Slovakia (1.3%), the Netherlands (1.8%), Germany and Cyprus (both 1.9%), and the highest in Romania (7.9%), Estonia (5.4%) and Greece (5.2%). Compared with November 2010, annual inflation rose in all 25 Member States for which data are available. The lowest 12-month averages up to December 2010 were registered in Latvia (-1.2%), Slovakia (0.7%) and the Netherlands (0.9%), and the highest in Romania (6.1%), Greece and Hungary (both 4.7%).

Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in December 2010 were transport (5.2%), housing (3.8%) and alcohol & tobacco (3.6%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-0.7%) and recreation & culture (-0.1%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.58 percentage points) and heating oil (+0.19) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.1) and garments (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (1.9%), transport (1.4%) and hotels & restaurants (1%), while the lowest were clothing (-0.8%), health, communications and education (all 0%). In particular, package holidays (+0.18 percentage points) and fuels for transport (+0.15) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.08) had the biggest downward impact.