The inflation rate in the European Union fell to 8.3 percent in March from 9.9 percent in February, and is thus the lowest since last May. This was announced today by the European statistical office Eurostat. In the Czech Republic, inflation fell to 16.5 percent from 18.4 percent in February, but it is still roughly double the EU average.
At the same time, Eurostat confirmed its earlier estimate, according to which the inflation rate in the eurozone fell to 6.9 percent in March. In February, it was 8.5 percent in countries paying with the euro. Month-on-month, prices in the EU and the eurozone rose by 0.9 percent.
Last March, inflation in the EU was 7.8 percent, in the eurozone it was 7.4 percent.
The lowest unemployment rate is recorded by Luxembourg, where it was 2.9 percent in March, followed by Spain (3.1 percent) and the Netherlands (4.5 percent). On the contrary, the highest rate of inflation was in Hungary (25.6 percent), Latvia (17.2 percent) and then the Czech Republic. Compared to February, year-on-year inflation decreased in 25 EU countries, and increased in the remaining two.
In the eurozone, the food, alcohol and tobacco category contributed the most to year-on-year inflation in March, with a share of 3.12 percentage points. This was followed by services (+2.10 percentage points), non-energy industrial goods (+1.71 percentage points) and energy (-0.05 percentage points).
