Eurozone inflation slows for third month in a row

The growth of consumer prices in the euro area amounted to 8.5% per annum in January 2023, follows from the preliminary data of Eurostat, published on Wednesday. This corresponds to the levels of May-June last year, when inflation reached 8.1% and 8.6%, respectively. In October, this figure was a record 10.6% per annum, after which it decreased to 10.1% in November and to 9.2% in December. Prices have been declining steadily, with inflation falling at 0.4% in January (compared to the previous month) after a similar reading in December. At the same time, the core inflation indicator (growth in prices excluding energy and food) has not changed since last month, it amounted to 5.2% per annum.

The Baltic countries remain the anti-leaders in terms of annual inflation: Latvia (21.6%), Estonia (18.8%) and Lithuania (18.4%). At the same time, Lithuania has seen a decrease in the indicator for the fourth month in a row. Also, high inflation rates remain in Slovakia (14.9%), Croatia (12.5%), Austria (11.5%) and Italy (10.9%). Eurostat recorded the lowest inflation rates in Spain and Luxembourg (both countries 5.8%), followed by Malta (6.7%), Cyprus (6.8%), France (7%) and Greece (7.2%). %). Data for Germany is not yet included in the service’s calculations.