In March 2023, the annual inflation rate for the euro area was 6.9%, down from 8.5% in February. 7.4% was the rate a year prior. In March 2023, annual inflation in the European Union was 8.3%, down from 9.9% in February. According to data released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, the rate was 7.8% a year earlier.
The lowest annual rates were registered in Luxembourg (2.9%), Spain (3.1%) and the Netherlands (4.5%), according to WAM. The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (25.6%), Latvia (17.2%) and Czechia (16.5%). Compared with February, annual inflation fell in twenty-five Member States and rose in two. In March, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+3.12 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+2.10 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+1.71 pp) and energy (-0.05 pp).