Euro area annual inflation was 0.2% in August 2016, stable compared with July. In August 2015 the rate was 0.1%. European Union annual inflation was 0.3% in August 2016, up from 0.2% in July. A year earlier the rate was 0.0%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In August 2016, negative annual rates were observed in twelve Member States.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Croatia (-1.5%), Bulgaria (-1.1%) and Slovakia (-0.8%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Belgium (2.0%), Sweden (1.2%) and Estonia (1.1%). Compared with July 2016, annual inflation fell in seven Member States, remained stable in six and rose in fifteen.

The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants & cafés (+0.10 percentage points), fruit and vegetables (both +0.07 pp), while fuels for transport (-0.35 pp), heating oil and gas (both -0.12 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.