The European Union and euro area annual inflation rates fell in June from their highest levels in nearly two and a half years, and Croatia also recorded a drop in inflation, a Eurostat report showed on Friday.

The EU annual inflation rate in June was 2.2%, down from 2.3% in May, its highest level since October 2018. The euro area annual inflation rate was 1.9%, down from 2.0% in May, which was also its highest level since October 2018.

In June 2020, when EU member states started easing coronavirus restrictions, the inflation rate was 0.8% in the EU and 0.3% in the euro area.

The figures show that energy prices jumped the most, by 12.6% month on month. In May, they had increased by 13.1%. The contribution of energy to the inflation rate was 1.3 percentage points.

The highest annual inflation rates were recorded in Hungary (5.3%), Poland (4.1%) and Estonia (3.7%), while the lowest rates were registered in Portugal (-0.6%), Malta (0.2%) and Greece (0.6%).

In Croatia, the annual inflation rate in June was 2.2%, the same as in Cyprus, after hitting its highest level since EU entry in May, of 2.4%. In June 2020, consumer prices in Croatia fell by 0.4% year on year.