EU: Annual inflation up in October

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The EU saw an annual hike of 2.2 percent in consumer prices in October, according to the EU's statistical office on Friday.

Eurostat said the 28-member bloc's annual inflation rate went up 0.1 percentage points last month, compared to 2.1 percent in September.

Official figures showed that the EU's annual inflation was 1.7 percent a year earlier.

"The lowest annual rates were registered in Denmark [0.7 percent], Portugal [0.8 percent] and Ireland [1.1 percent]," Eurostat said.

The statistical office also reported that the highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia and Romania with 4.5 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.

Last month, annual inflation rose in 14 member countries and fell in eight, compared with September.

Over the last decade, the highest annual inflation rate in the EU was seen in July 2008, at 4.4 percent. The lowest was in January 2015, at minus 0.5 percent, when prices were in fact dropping.