ECONOMY: Annual inflation rate in Cyprus dropped to 1% in December

Inflation in Cyprus dropped to 1% in December down from 1.6% the month before, while a year earlier the annual rate was -0.4%, according to Eurostat.

Meanwhile, the euro area annual inflation rate was 1.6% in December 2018, down from 1.9% in November.

A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%. European Union annual inflation was 1.7% in December 2018, down from 2.0% in November. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece and Portugal (both 0.6%) and Denmark (0.7%).

The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (3.3%), Romania (3.0%) and Hungary (2.8%).

Compared with November 2018, annual inflation fell in 22 Member States, remained stable in three and rose in three.

In December, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.58 percentage points, pp), followed by energy (+0.53 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.34 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.12 pp).