EU: Annual Inflation Up 1.6% In December 2019

Consumer prices in the European Union rose by 1.6% in December 2019, up from 1.3% in November, the bloc's statistical authority announced on Friday.

"Compared with November, annual inflation fell in two member states, remained stable in three and rose in twenty-three," the Eurostat said.

The lowest annual rates were seen in Portugal (0.4%), and Italy (0.5%), while the highest rates were recorded in Hungary (4.1%), Romania (4.0 %), Czechia, and Slovakia (both 3.2%).

"In December, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.80 pp), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.38 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.12 pp) and energy (+0.02 pp)," it noted.

Since 2014, the lowest annual inflation rate in the EU was in January 2015 at minus 0.5% -- when prices were in fact dropping -- and the highest was seen in October 2018, with 2.3%. -