Malta and France registered the lowest annual inflation rates in the EU in April, standing at 5.4%, statistics issued by Eurostat reveal.

The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (19.1%), Lithuania (16.6%) and Czechia (13.2%). Compared with March, annual inflation fell in three Member States, remained stable in two and rose in twenty-two.

The euro area annual inflation rate was 7.4% in April 2022, stable compared to March. A year earlier, the rate was 1.6%. European Union annual inflation was 8.1% in April 2022, up from 7.8% in March. A year earlier, the rate was 2%.

In April, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+3.70 percentage points), followed by services (+1.38 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+1.35 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+1.02 pp).