What EU country reported the highest annual inflation rate in December 2024?

Romania reported the highest annual inflation rate in the European Union in December 2024, of 5.5%, new data from Eurostat has revealed.

Other EU countries to report a higher-than-average inflation rate for the month included Hungary (4.8%), Croatia (4.5%), Belgium (4.4%) and Estonia (4.1%).

At the other end of the scale, the inflation rate was lowest in Ireland (1.0%), followed by Italy (1.4%), with Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg all reporting an annual inflation rate of 1.6%.

European Union inflation

Annual inflation in the European Union as a whole stood at 2.7% in December 2024, up from 2.5% the previous month, but down from 3.4% in December 2023.

On a month-on-month basis, annual inflation fell in seven member states, remained stable in one, and rose in 19, Eurostat‘s data showed.

Within the euro area specifically, the annual inflation rate stood at 2.4% (down from 2.9% in December 2023), with contributions to the rate coming from services (+1.78 percentage points), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.51 percentage points), non-energy industrial goods (+0.13 percentage points) and energy (+0.01 percentage points). Read more here.

Annual inflation rate by EU member state, December 2024 (%)