EU annual inflation was 2.8% in February 2011, unchanged compared with January. A year earlier the rate was 1.5%. Monthly inflation was 0.4% in February 2011. 

These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Inflation in the EU Member States In February 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (0.9%), Sweden (1.2%) and France (1.8%), and the highest in Romania (7.6%), Estonia (5.5%) and Bulgaria (4.6%). Compared with January 2011, annual inflation rose in 15 Member States, remained stable in three and fell in eight. 

The lowest 12-month averages up to February 2011 were registered in Ireland (-1.1%), Latvia (0%) and the Netherlands (1.2%), and the highest in Romania (6.5%), Greece (5%) and Hungary (4.4%).

Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in February 2011 were transport (5.7%), housing (4.9%) and alcohol & tobacco (3.5%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for clothing (-2.6%), communications (-0.4%) and recreation & culture (0%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.62 percentage points), heating oil (+0.23), electricity (+0.11) and gas (+0.10) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while garments (-0.25) and telecommunications (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (0.9%), food, housing, transport and hotels & restaurants (all 0.5%), while the lowest were clothing (-0.5%), alcohol & tobacco (0%), health and education (both 0.1%). In particular, package holidays (+0.06 percentage points), accommodation services and heating oil (+0.03 each) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.03), restaurants & cafés and footwear (-0.02 each) had the biggest downward impacts.