According to the report from Eurostat, in April 2020, a month marked by COVID-19 containment measures in all countries, the euro area annual inflation rate was 0.3%, down from 0.7% in March. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7%. While the core figures rose by 0.9% versus +0.9% previous and +0.9% expectations. European Union annual inflation was 0.7% in April 2020, down from 1.2% in March. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9%..

The lowest annual rates were registered in Slovenia (-1.3%), Cyprus (-1.2%), Estonia and Greece (both -0.9%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Czechia (3.3%), Poland (2.9%) and Hungary (2.5%). Compared with March, annual inflation fell in twenty-six Member States and remained stable in one.

In April, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.67 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.52 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.09 pp) and energy (-0.97 pp).