Harmonised inflation falls to 2.8% in Jan

The Statistical Service announced that the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) recorded an increase of 2.8% in January 2005,compared to the corresponding index of January 2004.

The sharpest fall compared with the previous year was recorded in the category of communications, down by 13.3%, while the sharpest rise was recorded by education, up by 5.6%.

The average HICP inflation rate for the EU25 was 2.0%. The lowest inflation rates were recorded in Finland (-0.2%), Sweden (0.5%) and Denmark (0.8%); the highest rates were observed in Latvia (6.7%), Estonia and Greece (4.2% each) and Hungary (3.9%).

For the whole of 2004, harmonised inflation was 1.9%.