by KG/EUROPA Euro area annual inflation was 0.4% in August 2014, unchanged compared to July. In August 2013 the rate was 1.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in August 2014. European Union annual inflation was 0.5% in August 2014, unchanged compared to July. A year earlier the rate was 1.5%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in August 2014. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In August 2014, negative annual rates were observed in Bulgaria (-1.0%), Spain (-0.5%), Estonia, Greece, Italy, and Slovakia (all -0.2%), Poland and Portugal (both -0.1%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Austria and the United Kingdom (both 1.5%), Romania (1.3%) and Finland (1.2%). Compared with July 2014, annual inflation fell in seventeen Member States, remained stable in two and rose in nine. The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from restaurants & cafés (+0.08 percentage points), rents (+0.07) and maintenance of vehicles (+0.05), while fuels for transport (-0.17), fruit (-0.12) and telecommunications (-0.11) had the biggest downward impacts.