Euro area annual inflation was 1.1% in December 2016, up from 0.6% in November. In December 2015 the rate was 0.2%. European Union annual inflation was 1.2% in December 2016, up from 0.6% in November. A year earlier the rate was 0.2%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In December 2016, negative annual rates were observed in Bulgaria (-0.5%), Ireland (-0.2%) and Romania (-0.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (2.4%), Belgium (2.2%), the Czech Republic and Latvia (both 2.1%). Compared with November 2016, annual inflation fell in one Member State, remained stable in one and rose in twenty-six.

The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from fuels for transport (+0.21 percentage points), vegetables (+0.07 pp) and heating oil (+0.05 pp), while gas (-0.10 pp), telecommunications (-0.05 pp) and personal care products (-0.04 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.