Eurostat: Romania Posts Highest Annual Inflation In EU For 9th Straight Month

05.16.2011 ZF English

Romania maintained the highest inflation in the European Union for the ninth month in a row in April, while the EU's average rate was up at 3.2% from 3.1% in March, statistics office Eurostat said Monday.

A year earlier, the EU inflation was 2.1%, the data showed.

Romanian annual inflation reached 8.4% in April, followed by Estonia (5.4%) and Lithuania and Hungary (4.4% each), while the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (1.5%), the Czech Republic (1.6%) and Sweden (1.8%).

The lowest 12-month averages up to April were registered in Ireland (-0.4%), Latvia (1.3%) and the Netherlands (1.4%) and the highest in Romania (7.2%), Greece (5%) and Estonia (4.3%).

Romanian consumer prices rose 0.7% in April compared with the previous month.

Annual inflation in the 16 states that use the euro was 2.8% in April, up from 2.7% in the earlier month. A year earlier, eurozone's rate was 1.6%.