EU inflation slightly low in April but still at record high level

Annual inflation rate in Euro area was slightly lower to 7.4% in April, from a preliminary figure of 7.5%, but remaining at a record high level, according to official data on Wednesday.

The highest contribution to the inflation comes from energy (+3.70 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+1.38 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+1.35 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+1.02 pp), Eurostat said.

Compared with March, annual inflation fell in three member states, remained stable in two and rose in 22.

The lowest annual rates were seen in France, Malta (both 5.4%) and Finland (5.8%) while the highest annual rates were seen in Estonia (19.1%), Lithuania (16.6%) and Czechia (13.2%).

Meanwhile, EU's annual inflation was 8.1% in April 2022, up from 7.8% in March.