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 euro area's annual inflation was 7.4% in March 2022 - up from 5.9% in February. A year earlier, the rate was 1.3%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Malta (4.5%), France (5.1%) and Portugal (5.5%).

The highest annual rates were recorded in Lithuania (15.6%), Estonia (14.8%) and Czechia (11.9%).

Compared with February, annual inflation fell in two states and rose in 25.

In March, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+4.36 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+1.12 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+1.07 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.90 pp).

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