In December 2024, annual inflation in the euro area rose to 2.4% from 2.2% in November, while in the European Union (EU) as a whole it rose to 2.7% from 2.5%, according to Eurostat. At the same time, Lithuania's annual inflation rate in December 2024 was 1.9%.

In December 2023, annual inflation was 2.9% in the euro area and 3.4% in the EU as a whole. In Lithuania, inflation was 1.6% in December 2023.

Services contributed the most to annual inflation, accounting for 1.78 percentage points of headline inflation, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco, accounting for 0.51 percentage points, and industrial products, accounting for 0.13 percentage points.

According to Eurostat, the lowest annual inflation rates were recorded in Ireland – 1%, Italy – 1.4% and Luxembourg, Finland and Sweden – 1.6% each.

The highest inflation rates were recorded in Romania – 5.5%, Hungary – 4.8% and Croatia – 4.5%.

Compared to September, inflation rose in 19 Member States in October, remained stable in 1 and fell in 7 countries.