CdM | The year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area remained stable in August at 5.3%, which is the lowest rise in prices since January 2022, according to Eurostat’s first estimate, as reported by Europa Press. These data place Spain and Belgium as the countries in the region with the lowest price increases, with 2.4% in both cases.
The evolution of prices in the euro area in August was mainly due to the smaller fall in the cost of energy, with a drop of 3.3%, compared with the 6.1% fall in July, while the rise in fresh food prices eased to 7.8% from 9.2%.
Likewise, in the case of services, prices rose by 5.5% year-on-year, one tenth of a percentage point less than in July, while non-energy industrial goods rose by two tenths of a percentage point less than in the previous month, with a rise of 4.8%.
Excluding the impact of energy, the annual rate of inflation in the euro area in August stood at 6.3%, compared to 6.7% in the previous month, while excluding also the impact of food, alcohol and tobacco prices, the underlying inflation rate moderated to 5.3% from 5.5%, its lowest level since May.
Among the Twenty, the lowest annual inflation rates were recorded in Belgium and Spain (both 2.4%), while the strongest price increases were recorded in Slovakia (9.6%), ahead of Croatia (8.5%) and Austria (7.6%).
The rebound in Spain’s harmonised inflation rate from 2.1% in July to 2.4% in August reduces the favourable price differential with the euro area average to 2.9 percentage points, down from 3.2 percentage points in the previous month.
