EU annual inflation was 2.7 percent in August 2012, up from 2.5 percent in July, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In Romania, price increases this August pushed up the annual inflation rate to 3.88 percent, the highest level so far in 2012.

In the EU, the lowest inflation annual rates this August were observed in Sweden (0.9 percent), Greece(1.2 percent) and Latvia (1.9 percent), and the highest in Hungary (6.0 percent), Cyprus (4.5 percent) and Estonia (4.2 percent), says Eurostat.

Compared with July 2012, annual inflation rose in twenty Member States, remained stable in two and fell in four.

The lowest 12-month averages up to August 2012 were registered in Sweden (1.0 percent), Ireland and Greece (both 1.8 percent), and the highest in Hungary (5.1 percent), Estonia (4.5 percent) and Slovakia (4.1 percent).

Euro area annual inflation was 2.6 percent in August 2012, up from 2.4 percent in July. A year earlier the rate was 2.5 percent.

Business Review