Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said, the euro area annual inflation rate was 1.4% in January 2020, up from 1.3% in December. A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%. European Union annual inflation was 1.7% in January 2020, up from 1.6% in December. A year earlier, the rate was 1.5%. Core CPI, which strips volatile food and energy prices, remained steady at -1.7% and 1.1% on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively.

.The lowest annual rates were registered in Italy (0.4%), Cyprus (0.7%), Denmark and Portugal (both 0.8%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (4.7%), Romania (3.9%), Czechia and Poland (both 3.8%).

Compared with December, annual inflation fell in five Member States, remained stable in five and rose in eighteen.

In January, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.68 percentage points, pp), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.40 pp), energy (+0.19 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.08 pp).