A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%. European Union annual inflation was also 2.2% in October 2018, up from 2.1% in September 2018. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Denmark (0.7%), Portugal (0.8%) and Ireland (1.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (4.5%), Romania (4.2%) and Hungary (3.9%). Compared with September 2018, annual inflation fell in eight Member States, remained stable in five and rose in fourteen. In October 2018, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+1.02 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.65 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.42 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.11 pp).