In September the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) decreased by 1.9% from September 2019 while compared to August 2020, the HICP decreased by 0,8%.

From January – September the index declined 1.1% compared to the same nine-month period last year.

The euro area annual inflation rate was -0.3% in September, down from -0.2% in August.

A year earlier, the rate was 0.8%.

European Union annual inflation was 0.3% in September, down from 0.4% in August.

A year earlier, the rate was 1.2%, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (-2.3%), Cyprus (-1.9%) and Estonia (-1.3%).

The highest annual rates were recorded in Poland (3.8%), Hungary (3.4%) and Czechia (3.3%).

Compared with August, annual inflation fell in 13 Member States, remained stable in seven and rose in seven.

In September, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.34 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.24 pp), non-energy industrial goods (-0.08 pp) and energy (-0.81 pp).

In Cyprus, compared to September 2019, the categories Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels and Transport had the largest changes of -9.2% and -5.8% respectively.

Compared to August 2020, the largest negative change was recorded in Transport (-5.5%), whereas the largest positive change was monitored in Clothing and Footwear (8.1%).

Source: Financial Mirror