BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) - The euro area's annual inflation in October was 1.9 percent, up from 1.8 percent in September, a European Union (EU) report released on Tuesday said.

According to the EU's statistical office Eurostat, a year earlier the rate was -0.1 percent, while monthly inflation was 0.4 percent last month.

In addition, the annual inflation in the EU was 2.3 percent in October, which represents a slight increase compared to September's 2.2 percent. A year earlier the rate was 0.5 percent. Monthly inflation was 0.3 percent in October.

The lowest annual rates in October in the EU member states were observed in Ireland (-0.8 percent), Latvia (0.9 percent) and Slovakia (1.0 percent), while the highest was in Romania (7.9 percent), Greece (5.2 percent) and Estonia (4.5 percent).

Meanwhile, annual inflation rose in fifteen Member States remained stable in six and fell in five, compared with September.

The lowest 12-month averages up to October were registered in Ireland (-1.9 percent), Latvia (-1.8 percent) and Slovakia (0.5 percent) and the highest in Romania (5.5 percent), Hungary (4.9 percent) and Greece (4.3 percent).

Furthermore, the main components with the highest annual rates in October were transport, alcohol and tobacco, and housing, with 4.3 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively; while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications, recreation and culture, and clothing with -1.1 percent, 0.1 percent 0.4 percent, respectively.

Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.44 percentage points), heating oil (+0.14) and gas (+0.08) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.10) and garments (-0.09) had the biggest downward impacts.

The main components with the highest monthly rates were clothing (3.3 percent), education (0.6 percent) and housing (0.4 percent), while the lowest were communications (-0.3 percent), recreation and culture and hotels and restaurants (0.0 percent each).

In particular, garments (+0.16 percentage points) and footwear (+0.04) had the largest upward impacts, while package holidays (-0.03) had the biggest downward impact.

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