Romania is top in the EU in terms of average general price increase over the past twelve months (November 2012 to October 2013) 3.5 per cent higher.

In the Euro Area, the annual inflation rate went up to 0.9 per cent last month from 0.7 per cent in October. The increase of general prices for goods and services in the 17 states using the Euro currency is way below the 2 per cent level targeted by the European Central Bank. The low inflation allows ECB to maintain the interest rates of monetary policy at a record level of 0.5 per cent.

The figures released by Eurostat show that the higher prices for energy in the Euro Area (0.11 per cent), accommodation (0.19 per cent) and cigarettes (0.08 per cent) were the main reasons behind the higher inflation in November. Prices dropped though for fuel (0.23 per cent) and telecom (0.14 per cent).

The lowest annual inflation rates were reported last month in Greece (-2.9 per cent), Bulgaria (-1 per cent) and Cyprus (-0.8 per cent), and the highest were in Estonia (2.1 per cent), Finland (1.8 per cent) and Germany (1.6 per cent). (source: nineoclock.ro)