Malta registered the lowest annual inflation rate in the EU last month, according to data released on Thursday.

Eurostat said in a statement that the EU's annual inflation was 5.3% in December 2021 - up from 5.2% in November. A year earlier, the rate was 0.3%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Malta (2.6%), Portugal (2.8%) and Finland (3.2%), according to the statistical office of the EU.

The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (12%), Lithuania (10.7%) and Poland (8%).

Compared to November, annual inflation fell in seven states, remained stable in two and rose in 18.

In December, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+2.46 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+1.02 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.78 pp) and food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.71 pp).

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