Euro area annual inflation down to 8.5%

Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 8.5% in January 2023, down from 9.2% in December according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in January (17.2%, compared with 25.5% in December), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (14.1%, compared with 13.8% in December), non-energy industrial goods (6.9%, compared with 6.4% in December) and services (4.2%, compared with 4.4% in December).

The euro area consists of Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The euro area data refer to the country composition at a specific point in time. Changes in the composition of the euro area are incorporated using a chain index formula.

Data for Germany for January 2023 was not available in time for publication due to technical data processing issues in Germany. Therefore, the euro area HICP has been calculated using Eurostat estimates for Germany.