The price level growth in the European Union moved a little higher again in March. The eight percent threshold is in sight, with huge differences in inflation rates between countries. Lithuania, with the highest inflation, has more than three times the rate of price increases than Malta at the other end of the scale.
The average annual March inflation in the European Union is 7.8 percent. In February, prices grew by only 6.2 percent. Inflation in the EU jumped by six percentage points in one year, according to current Eurostat data.
Lithuania exceeded 15 percent
Lithuania faces the highest ever inflation rate, with prices having risen by 15.6 percent year-on-year in March. Malta, on the other hand, is experiencing the lowest rate of price level growth in the whole European Union, at 4.5 percent. A total of seven countries are struggling with double-digit inflation (i.e. 10 percent or more): Poland (10.2), Bulgaria (10.5), Latvia (11.5), the Netherlands (11.7), the Czech Republic (11.9), Estonia (14.8) and the aforementioned Lithuania (15.6).
Inflation and the euro area
The data show that it is not at all possible to determine to what extent does a euro area membership matter when in comes to inflation. Lithuania pays with the euro and has the highest inflation, while Sweden is outside the eurozone and its price growth is the eighth lowest (6.3 percent). The eurozone average is 7.4 percent.
