Malta saw a dip in inflation in November, but official statistics show it was still well above the euro area average.

The National Statistics Office said the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) was 3.9 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent in October 2023. 

Inflation has been falling slowly.

The highest annual inflation rates in November 2023 were recorded in food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.2 per cent) and education (5.6 per cent). On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in communication (-9.3 per cent) and clothing and footwear (1.0 per cent). 

In November, the largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index (+1.45 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of bakery products.

The second and third largest impacts were measured in the restaurants and hotels Index (+0.86 percentage points) and the Housing, water, electricity, gas and 'other fuels' index (+0.53 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of restaurant services and rents, respectively.

Food prices are the biggest source of inflation.

A downward impact on annual inflation was registered in the communication index (-0.37 percentage points), mainly reflecting lower prices of mobile phone services.

In November, the annual rate of change registered by the Maltese all-items HICP was 3.9 per cent, 1.5 percentage points higher than the 2.41 per cent registered for the euro area. 

The all items HICP in the Euro Area remained well below Malta's in November.

Eurostat said on Tuesday that  euro area annual inflation rate was 2.4% in November 2023, down from 2.9% in October. A year earlier, the rate was 10.1%.

European Union annual inflation was 3.1% in November 2023, down from 3.6% in October. A year earlier, the rate was 11.1%. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Belgium (-0.8%), Denmark (0.3%) and Italy (0.6%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Czechia (8.0%), Hungary (7.7%), Slovakia and Romania (both 6.9%). Compared with October, annual inflation fell in twenty-one Member States, remained stable in three and rose in three.

In November, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+1.69 percentage points, pp), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (+1.37 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.75 pp) and energy (-1.41 pp).