Figures, published by Eurostat, showed that the euro area annual inflation rate was 0.7% in October 2019, down from 0.8% in September. The slowdown was in line with expectations. A year earlier, the rate was 2.3%. European Union annual inflation was 1.1% in October 2019, down from 1.2% in September. A year earlier, the rate was 2.3%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (-0.5%), Greece (-0.3%) and Portugal (-0.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (3.2%), Hungary (3.0%) and Slovakia (2.9%). Compared with September, annual inflation fell in fifteen Member States, remained stable in eight and rose in five.

In October, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.69 percentage points, pp), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.29 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.07 pp) and energy (-0.32 pp).