Malta no longer tops the inflation league in the 16-member euro area and has been surpassed by Finland following months in pole position.

According to new inflation figures issued by Eurostat yesterday, Malta's inflation last August stood at one per cent, 0.2 per cent above July's but 4.4 per cent below that of 12 months earlier.

However, although Malta's inflation has been almost in free fall over the past months, particularly due to the stabilisation of international oil prices, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is still higher than the average in the euro area, which at the moment is in deflation mode.

The statistics office said the average annual inflation in the euro area last month stood at -0.2 per cent as against-0.7 per cent in July.

The lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-2.4 per cent), Portugal (-1.2 per cent) and Cyprus (-0.9 per cent) and the highest rates were registered in Hungary (five per cent), Romania (4.9 per cent) and Poland (4.3 per cent).

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