According to the report from Eurostat, in August 2020, a month in which COVID-19 containment measures continued to be lifted, the euro area annual inflation rate was -0.2%, down from 0.4% in July. A year earlier, the rate was 1.0%. Core figures rose by 0.4% versus +0.4% previous and +0.4% expectations. European Union annual inflation was 0.4% in August 2020, down from 0.9% in July. A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (-2.9%), Greece (-2.3%) and Estonia (-1.3%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (4.0%), Poland (3.7%) and Czechia (3.5%). Compared with July, annual inflation fell in sixteen Member States, remained stable in five and rose in six.

In August, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.33 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.30 pp), non-energy industrial goods (-0.03 pp) and energy (-0.77 pp).