CONSUMER PRICES: EU YEAR-ON-YEAR INFLATION STAYS AT 1% IN DECEMBER.

Summary:The annual average rate of inflation in the EU remained at 1% in December 1998, according to the latest monthly data published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg on January 29. This reflects considerable efforts by the Member States to keep consumer price indices down since December 1997 when EU inflation was 1.6%. The corresponding rate for the Euro zone (all the Member States except Sweden, Greece, Denmark and the United Kingdom) fell to 0.8% between November and December. A year earlier the average rate for these eleven countries was 1.5%.

The highest annual rates were recorded in Greece (3.7%), Portugal (2.8%) and Ireland (2.2%). At the other end of the scale, the lowest rises were in France (0.3%), Germany and Luxembourg (both 0.4%). Sweden reported zero inflation. Compared with November, annual inflation fell in five Member States, rose in four and was unchanged in six.

The new rate used by Eurostat - the Monetary Union Index of Consumer Prices (MUICP) - is calculated as a weighted average of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices HICPs of the 11 countries in the Euro zone...