EU: Annual inflation at 1.6% in June

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Consumer prices in the EU surged 1.6% year-on-year in June this year, the bloc's statistical office announced Wednesday.

Eurostat said the 28-member bloc's annual inflation rate remained constant last month compared to May, as the figure was 2.1% a year ago.

Compared to the previous month, annual inflation fell in 17 member states, remained stable in one, and rose in nine in May, while the data for the U.K. was not available for the month.

According to the figures, the lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (0.2%), Greek Cypriots (0.3%), Denmark and Croatia (both 0.5%).

"The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (3.9%), Hungary (3.4%) and Latvia (3.1%)," Eurostat said.

Since 2014, the lowest annual inflation rate in the EU was in January 2015 at minus 0.5% -- when prices were in fact dropping -- and the highest was seen in October 2018, at 2.3%.