Estonia's July inflation fastest in euro area

TALLINN – While annual inflation in the euro area accelerated from 1.9 percent in June to 2.2 percent in July, in Estonia inflation sped from 3.7 percent to 4.9 percent and was also the fastest in the euro area, according to data from Eurostat.

European Union annual inflation was 2.5 percent in July 2021, up from 2.2 percent in June. A year earlier, the rate was

0.4 percent in the euro area and 0.9 percent in the EU, according to Eurostat.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Malta, 0.3 percent, Greece, 0.7 percent, and Italy, 1 percent. The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia, 4.9 percent, Poland and Hungary, both 4.7 percent. Compared with June, annual inflation fell in nine member states, remained stable in two and rose in 16.

In July, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy, 1.34 percentage points, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco with 0.35 percentage points, services with 0.31 percentage points and non-energy industrial goods with 0.17 percentage points.

On July 8, the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB) published a new monetary policy strategy, which sets, among other things, a symmetric inflation target of 2 percent. The new strategy has been implemented since the ECB governing council's regular monetary policy meeting on July 22.