Malta had highest monthly increase in inflation

Malta experienced the highest monthly increase in inflation across the EU last April, figures out today show.

Inflation went up by 2.9% in April when compared to March, Eurostat, the EU statistical agency, said.

The next highest increase on a month-on-month basis was in the Netherlands, where inflation went up by 1%. In most other EU countries, the monthly HCIP inflation rate either dropped or registered a negligible increase.

April was the first full month when the COVID-19 restrictive measures started biting hard.

Despite Malta being an outlier when statistics are evaluated on a monthly basis, the year-on-year inflation rate remained stable at 1.1%.

The annual inflation rate measures the average price changes in the reference month when compared to the same month the previous year.

The monthly inflation compares the inflation of the reference month to the previous month.

Both calculations can be influenced by monthly and seasonal effects.