Euro area annual inflation was zero per cent in May 2009, down from 0.6 per cent in April. A year earlier the rate was 3.7 per cent. Monthly inflation was 0.1 per cent in May 2009, according to figures released on June 16 2009 by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

EU annual inflation was 0.7 per cent in May 2009, down from 1.3 per cent in April. A year earlier the rate was four per cent. Monthly inflation was 0.1 per cent in May 2009.

Among EU member states, in May 2009 the lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-1.7 per cent), Portugal (-1.2 per cent), Spain and Luxembourg (both -0.9 per cent), and the highest in Romania (5.9 per cent), Lithuania (4.9 per cent) and Latvia (4.4 per cent).
 Compared with April 2009, annual inflation fell in 24 EU states, remained stable in one and rose in one.

The lowest 12-month averages up to May 2009 were registered in Portugal (1.3 per cent), Ireland (1.5 per cent) and Germany (1.8 per cent), and the highest in Latvia (11.2 per cent), Lithuania (9.3 per cent) and Bulgaria (8.3 per cent).

The main components with the highest annual rates in May 2009 were alcohol & tobacco (3.3 per cent), hotels and restaurants, and miscellaneous goods and services (both 2.2 per cent) , while the lowest annual rates were observed for transport (-4.8 per cent), communications (-one per cent) and housing (-0.1 per cent).

Concerning the detailed sub-indices, restaurants & cafés (+0.18 percentage points) and electricity (+0.12) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while fuels for transport (-1.02) and heating oil (-0.44) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were transport (0.5 per cent) and communications (0.3 per cent), while the lowest were recreation and culture (-0.4 per cent) and health (-0.2 per cent) . In particular, fuels for transport (+0.08 percentage points) had the largest upward impact, while package holidays (-0.04) had the biggest downward impact, Eurostat said.