EU annual inflation remains stable in March

By Gokhan Ergocun</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – The annual inflation rate in the EU was 1.6% in March, the union's statistical office said on Wednesday.</p> <p>Eurostat said the 28-member bloc's annual inflation rate remained unchanged in March, compared to the previous month.</p> <p>In the third month of 2019, annual inflation decreased in six member states, remained stable in two, and rose in 19, versus February.</p> <p>&quot;The lowest annual rates were registered in Portugal (0.8%) and Greece (1.0%),&quot; Eurostat said. </p> <p>The statistical office noted that the highest annual figures were seen in Romania (4.2%), Hungary (3.8%) and the Netherlands (2.9%).</p> <p>&quot;The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (0.52 percentage points), followed by services (0.51), food, alcohol &amp; tobacco (0.34) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.04),&quot; it said.</p> <p>Since 2008, the lowest annual inflation rate in the EU was in January 2015 at minus 0.5% — when prices were in fact dropping — and the highest was seen in July 2008, at 4.4%.