The statistical office of the European Union has estimated a decrease in annual inflation for the region for December 2017. A recent release by Eurostat states that the statistical office is expecting inflation to fall from 1.5% in November to 1.4% in December.

A further break down of the components of inflation reveals that energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in December (3.0%, compared with 4.7% in November). Other components such as ‘food, alcohol and tobacco’ which declined slightly from 2.2% in November  to 2.1% for December, ‘services’ is expected to remain stable from the 1.2% reported in November. ‘Non-energy industrial goods’ rose from 0.4% in the previous month to 0.5% for December 2017.

Below is a table showing the components of inflation and their expected contribution to December inflation.

The table below gives a further break down of the components of inflation and their weight. Note, energy components weigh the heaviest and therefore is a sensitive indicator of inflation.

The next release with full data for December 2017 period is schedule 17, January 2018.