European disinflation stalls as CPI unchanged in EU for April

This morning, Eurostat, an official website of the European Union, released inflation figures for April 2024 for the Euro area and other European countries.

CPI unchanged

The euro area annual inflation rate was 2.4% in April 2024, unchanged from March 2024 but considered “stable”.

However, year-on-year inflation has decreased dramatically. In April 2023, according to the Eurostat, the rate was more than double at 7.0%.

Meanwhile, in the wider EU area, the annual inflation was 2.6% in April 2024, stable compared to March 2024. A year earlier, the rate was 8.1%. 

Specific countries’ inflation rates

Compared with March 2024, annual inflation fell in fifteen of the EU member states, remained stable in four and rose in eight.

Similarly to March, the lowest annual rates were registered in Lithuania (0.4%), Denmark (0.5%) and Finland (0.6%).

In terms of the highest annual rates, Belgium (at 4.9%) joined Romania (6.2%) and Croatia (4.7%) as the biggest gainers.

Inflation expectations

Although this news wasn’t a further drop in inflation as hoped for, it was no shock to the markets.

Analysts ahead of the announcements broadly expected the inflation rate year-on-year to be unchanged in April from 2.4% in the month prior, although they anticipated core inflation to drop 0.2% from 2.9% in March to 2.7% in April.

Analysts further anticipated month-on-month inflation to be down from 0.8% to 0.6% last month.

Previous inflation

Last month, in contrast, CPI figures provided positive news:

The euro area annual inflation rate was 2.4% in March 2024, down from 2.6% in February. A year earlier, the rate was 6.9%.”

The lowest annual rates were registered in Lithuania (0.4%), Finland (0.6%) and Denmark (0.8%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (6.7%), Croatia (4.9%), Estonia and Austria (both 4.1%). Compared with February, annual inflation fell in thirteen Member States, remained stable in four and rose in ten.

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