Malta's inflation stable but high

Malta's inflation in May remained stable at a high 4.1 per cent when compared to the previous month, although inflation in the eurozone increased from 3.3 to 3.7 per cent.

Eurostat figures issued yesterday in Brussels show the EU 27 average going up from 3.6 per cent in April to 3.9 per cent in May.

According to the latest Eurostat figures, issued yesterday in Brussels, last month Malta had the second lowest 12-month average inflation in the EU which together with Denmark stood at 2.3 per cent. The Netherlands had the lowest price increase in the EU on an annual basis reaching just 1.7 per cent.

On the other hand, the EU's statistics arm said that Latvia (+13.8 per cent), Bulgaria (+10.9 per cent) and Estonia (+9.3 per cent) had the highest inflation rates in the EU in the past 12 months.

Eurostat said that in the euro area, the main components with the highest annual rates in May 2008 were food (6.4 per cent), transport (5.9 per cent) and housing (5.7 per cent), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-1.7 per cent), recreation and culture (0.1 per cent) and clothing (0.7 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices in Malta increased to 108 from 107.24 in April, the National Statistics Office said. This primarily reflected an increase of two per cent in the restaurants and hotels index, due to price rises in accommodation services.

The clothing and footwear index registered an increase of 1.5 per cent, due to seasonal price rises in garments. The recreation and culture index increased by 0.9 per cent on account of higher prices of package holidays. Higher air fares caused the transport index to go up by 0.8 per cent. An increase in the price of beer caused the alcoholic beverages and tobacco index to shift up by 0.2 per cent.

Higher prices of kerosene and materials for the maintenance and repair of dwellings underlay an increase of 0.1 per cent in the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index. A fall of 0.1 per cent was recorded in the miscellaneous goods and services index.