OREANDA-NEWS. Euro area annual inflation was -0.2% in February 2016, down from 0.3% in January 2016. In February 2015 the rate was -0.3%. European Union annual inflation was also -0.2% in February 2016, down from 0.3% in January. A year earlier the rate was -0.3%. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In February 2016, negative annual rates were observed in fifteen Member States. The lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (-2.2%) and Romania (-2.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Belgium (1.1%), Austria and Malta (both 1.0%). Compared with January 2016, annual inflation fell in twenty Member States, remained stable in one and rose in six.

The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants and cafes (+0.13 percentage points), rents (+0.08 pp) and fruit (+0.06 pp), while fuels for transport (-0.49 pp), heating oil (-0.24 pp) and gas (-0.10 pp) had the biggest downward impacts.