Annual inflation in the euro area was 1.7 percent in March this year, down from 1.8 percent in February, according to a report released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In March 2012, the annual inflation rate was 2.7 percent. Meanwhile, monthly inflation was 1.2 percent in March of the current year.
Meanwhile, in the European Union (EU-27) annual inflation was 1.9 percent in March, down from the two percent recorded in February. In the same month of the previous year, the annual inflation rate in the EU-27 was 2.9 percent, while monthly inflation was 0.9 percent in March this year.
In March, annual inflation in the EU-27 fell in 20 states, rose in one and remained stable in five, as compared with February of the current year. In March, the lowest annual inflation rates were observed in Greece (-0.2%), Latvia (0.3%) and Sweden (0.5%), and the highest in Romania (4.4%), Estonia (3.8%) and the Netherlands (3.2%).
The lowest 12-month averages up to the end of March this year were registered in Greece (0.6%), Sweden (0.8%) and Latvia (1.6%), and the highest in Hungary (4.9%), Estonia (4.0%), and Romania (3.9%).
