Eurostat: Romania had highest annual inflation rate in the EU in April

Romania’s annual inflation rate was 4.3% in April 2018, this being the highest annual rate registered in the European Union (EU), according to data from the European statistical office Eurostat. Slovakia (3%) and Estonia (2.9%) also had high annual inflation rates. At the opposite end, the lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (-0.3%), Ireland (-0.1%) and Portugal (0.3%). In the EU, the annual inflation was 1.4% in April 2018, down from 1.5% in March. Meanwhile, the Euro area annual inflation rate was 1.2% in April 2018, down from 1.3% in March. Eurostat calculates the annual inflation rate as the change of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) between a month and the same month of the previous year. Data published on May 14 by Romania’s National Statistics Institute (INS) showed that the annual inflation rate, which measures the evolution of consumer prices in the last year, reached 5.2% in Romania in April. Romania’s National Bank (BNR) also increased recently its annual inflation forecast for the end of this year, from 3.5% per year to 3.6%. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com