In December 2011, the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (0.4%), Malta (1.3%) and Bulgaria (2.0%), and the highest in Slovakia (4.6%), Poland (4.5%) and Cyprus (4.2%). Compared with November 2011, annual inflation fell in twenty-one Member States, remained stable in two and rose in two.
The lowest 12-month averages4 up to December 2011 were registered in Sweden (1.4%), Slovenia and the Czech Republic (both 2.1%), and the highest in Romania (5.8%), Estonia (5.1%) and Latvia (4.2%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in December 2011 were housing (4.9%), transport (4.3%) and alcohol & tobacco (3.8%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.9%), recreation & culture (0.6%) and education (0.9%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.30 percentage points), heating oil (+0.15), gas and electricity (+0.12 each) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.15) and vegetables (-0.12) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation & culture (2.0%) and hotels & restaurants (1.0%), while the lowest monthly rate was observed for clothing (-1.3%). In particular, package holidays (+0.18 percentage points) and accommodation services (+0.07) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.10) had the biggest downward impact.
