The annual inflation rate was down to 2.7% in the EU in February, from 2.8% in January, and fell to 2.3% in the euro area in February, from 2.5% in January, Eurostat data also showed.
The lowest annual rates were registered in France (0.9%), Ireland (1.4%), and Finland (1.5%), with the highest annual rates recorded in Hungary (5.7%), Romania (5.2%), and Estonia (5.1%).
Compared with January 2025, annual inflation fell in fourteen member states, remained stable in six, and rose in seven.
In February 2025, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+1.66 percentage points, pp), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.52 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.14 pp), and energy (+0.01 pp). Services inflation dipped to 3.7% per year in February, while energy prices were just 0.2% higher than a year earlier, good prices were 0.6% higher, and food, alcohol and tobacco prices were up 2.7%, the same data showed.
Romania’s annual inflation rate stood at 5.02% in February 2025, slightly higher than the 5% rate recorded in January 2025, data from the country’s statistical office INS showed on March 13.