Fruit, veg and tobacco holds Eurozone inflation steady
The annual rate of inflation in the Eurozone remained steady in July at 1.6 per cent, as analysts had expected.
The largest upward pressures came from fruit (up 0.12 percentage points), vegetables (up 0.09 percentage points) and tobacco (up 0.08 percentage points), while the largest downward pressures came from telecommunications (down 0.18), medical and paramedical services (down 0.08) and fuels
for transport (down 0.06).
Compared to the month before, the consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.5 per cent, indicating deflation. This was down from 0.1 per cent inflation in May.
Exlcuing volatile products like food and energy, annual inflation was 1.1 per cent, down from 1.2 per cent the month before.
Across the 27 EU countries, annual inflation was also stable at 1.7 per cent. The lowest annual rates were in Greece (-0.5 per cent), Bulgaria (0.0 per cent) and Denmark (0.4 per cent), The highest were recorded in Estonia (3.9 per cent), Romania (3.4 per cent) and the Netherlands (3.1 per cent).
Compared with June 2013, annual inflation fell in 17 member states, remained stable in two and rose in nine.