A year earlier, the rate was 1.5%. European Union annual inflation was 1.5% in March 2018, up from 1.4% in February. A year earlier the rate was 1.6%. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (-0.4%), Greece (0.2%) and Denmark (0.4%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.0%), Estonia (2.9%), Slovakia and Lithuania (both 2.5%). Compared with February, annual inflation fell in six Member States, remained stable in six and rose in fifteen. In March 2018, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.67 percentage point), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.41 pp), energy (0.20 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (0.07 pp).