Mubasher: The Euro area’s (EA) annual inflation rate growth recorded 1.2% in April 2018, falling from 1.3% a month earlier, data released by the European Union’s (EU) statistical office Eurostat showed on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, inflation rate for the EA slowed down last month, down from 1.9% in the comparative period of 2017. 

The highest contribution made to EA inflation came from the food, alcohol, and tobacco adding 0.47%, followed by 0.45% for the services segment, while the energy sector increased 0.25% and the non-energy industrial goods segment edged up 0.07%.

In the EU, inflation fell to 1.4% last month, down from 1.5% in March 2018. EU's data also indicated that the inflation was down in April 2018, compared to 2% in the same month a year earlier.

The lowest annual inflation rates for April were recorded in Cyprus, Ireland and Portugal at -0.3%, -0.1%, and 0.3%, respectively. 

On the other hand, the highest rates were registered in Romania at 4.3%, Slovakia at 3%, and Estonia at 2.9%, the data showed. 

By 9:15 am GMT, the EUR/USD pair edged down 0.09% to $1.1827.