Bulgaria recorded the third-highest annual inflation rate in the European Union in June, according to Eurostat's final figures. Consumer prices rose by 5.2% compared with the same month a year earlier, placing the country behind only Romania, where inflation reached 9.2%, and Lithuania at 5.4%.
At the opposite end of the ranking, Sweden posted the lowest annual inflation rate at 1%, followed by the Czech Republic with 1.1% and Denmark with 1.8%, highlighting the wide differences in price growth across the bloc.
Compared with May, inflation eased in 22 EU member states during June, remained unchanged in three countries and increased in two, indicating that price pressures continued to moderate across much of the Union.
Across the euro area, annual inflation stood at 2.8% in June, matching Eurostat's preliminary estimate and falling from 3.2% in May. A year earlier, eurozone inflation had been 2%. For the European Union as a whole, the annual rate declined to 2.9% from 3.3% the previous month, although it remained above the 2.3% recorded in June last year.
Services continued to be the biggest driver of inflation in the euro area, contributing 1.51 percentage points to the annual rate. Energy followed with 0.77 percentage points, while food, alcohol and tobacco added 0.29 percentage points. Non-energy industrial goods accounted for a further 0.18 percentage points.
