A year earlier, the rate was 1.5%. European Union annual inflation was 2.1% in August 2018, down from 2.2% in July. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7%. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The lowest annual rates were registered in Denmark (0.8%), Ireland and Greece (both 0.9%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.7%), Bulgaria (3.7%), Estonia (3.5%) and Hungary (3.4%). Compared with July 2018, annual inflation fell in twelve Member States, remained stable in five and rose in ten. In August 2018, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+0.87 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.59 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.48 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.09 pp).