A Eurostat survey has given Malta the lowest EU annual inflation rate for February.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, Tonio Fenech, parliamentary secretary in the Finance Ministry, said he believed the country’s rate of inflation was expected to remain “stable” this year. Mr Fenech said Malta now appeared to have recovered from the shock of the high price of oil and was now registering a “deflation”.

While it did not appear that the price of oil would rise drastically again, Mr Fenech said the government was not expecting any other factors to affect the rate of inflation.

In fact, month after month since last summer, the country registered steady decreases in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), bringing the inflation rate closer to the reference value of the eurozone convergence criteria.

“This is not only positive with regard to the changeover from the lira to the euro, but it is also a good sign for the country’s economy. Our projections are that the inflation rate will remain steady throughout this year and possibly increase slightly next year,” said Mr Fenech.

According to Eurostat, Malta registered a rate of inflation of 0.8 per cent of GDP in February, which means that the inflation rate now stands at 2.4 per cent.

With the eurozone area annual inflation rate stable at 1.8 per cent at the moment and the EU rate also stable at 2.1 per cent, Malta registered the lowest annual inflation rates among EU members, followed by France, Cyprus and Finland (all having registered a 1.2 per cent annual inflation rate in February). The highest inflation rates last month were observed in Hungary (nine per cent), Latvia (7.2 per cent), Bulgaria and Estonia (both 4.6 per cent).