In the first quarter of 2010, euro area inflation rate was 1.4%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared with the same period last year, rising by 0.5 percentage points.

The inflation rate of the 27 EU countries in the first quarter was 1.9%, up 0.4 percentage points from the same period last year, rising by 0.6 percentage points.

Countries with lower inflation rates include Latvia (-4.0%), Ireland (-2.4%) and Lithuania (-0.4%). Hungary (5.7%), Romania (4.2%) and Greece (3.9%) have higher inflation rates.

The higher price increases are pportation (6.1%), wine tobacco (4%) and cultural education (1.8%). The negative growth of prices is food (-0.6%), communication (-0.3%) and clothing (-0.1%).