In June 2012, the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (0.9%), Greece (1.0%) and Bulgaria (1.6%), and the highest in Hungary (5.6%), Estonia and Malta (both 4.4%). Compared with May 2012, annual inflation fell in eight Member States, remained stable in eight and rose in ten.
The lowest 12-month averages up to June 2012 were registered in Sweden (1.1%), Ireland (1.6%) and Greece (1.9%), and the highest in Estonia and Hungary (both 4.7%) and Slovakia (4.1%).
Euro area
The main components with the highest annual rates in June 2012 were alcohol & tobacco (4.9%), housing (3.7%) and transport (3.1%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-2.8%), education (0.7%) and recreation & culture (0.8%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.13 percentage points),
gas (+0.11) and tobacco (+0.10) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.17), cars and rents (-0.06 each) had the biggest downward impacts.
The main components with the highest monthly rates were food and hotels & restaurants (both 0.4%) and communications (0.2%), while the lowest monthly rates were observed for clothing (-1.2%), transport (-0.7%) and housing (-0.1%) In particular, fruit (+0.08 percentage points) and accommodation services (+0.03) had the largest upward impacts, while fuels for transport (-0.16), garments (-0.07) and heating oil (-0.04) had the biggest downward impacts.
