Euro area annual inflation was 1.5% in March 2017, down from 2.0% in February. In March 2016 the rate was 0.0%. European Union annual inflation was 1.6% in March 2017, down from 2.0% in February. A year earlier the rate was 0.0%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The lowest annual rates were registered in Romania (0.4%), Ireland and the Netherlands (both 0.6%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Latvia (3.3%), Lithuania (3.2%) and Estonia (3.0%). Compared with February 2017, annual inflation fell in seventeen Member States, remained stable in six and rose in five. The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from fuels for transport (+0.48 percentage points), heating oil (+0.11 pp) and vegetables (+0.08 pp), while telecommunication and package holidays (-0.09 pp each), and garments (-0.05 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.