Irish CPI Lower Than 2 Years Ago

October inflation data for all EU countries except the UK was released today by Eurostat. Some of the information had already been released or hinted by national statistics offices (such as the dramatic Baltic disinflation), but some interesting information still came out.

One such fact was that Ireland now has lower consumer prices than 2 years ago. In October 2008, its inflation rate was 2.7% while in October 2009 it was -2.8%, meaning that Ireland is the only European country (and except for maybe Japan (whose October numbers aren't yet available), the only country anywhere) to have lower consumer prices than 2 years ago. By contrast, the average inflation for the EU was 3.7% in October 2008 and 0.5% in October 2009, and for the Euro area the numbers were 3.2% and -0.1%, meaning that consumer prices rose 4.2% over 2 years in the EU and 3.1% in the euro area.