The economy ministry’s price setting watchdog (Observatoire de la formation des prix) said energy costs increased at a relatively modest pace of 2.7%. “The price of fuel and lubricants remained stable” and heating oil dropped by 2.9%. On the other hand, electricity was up by 6.1% and natural gas by 2.7%.

A main inflation driver was services, which rose as a broad category by 2.3%. This included constituent gains in restaurants, cafés and discos (up by 2% compared to the previous year), childcare provision (3.9%), postal services (7.6%), private education (9.7%), driving lessons and vehicle safety checks (10.2%), air transport (14%) and ambulance services (20.8%).

Food prices rose by 1.4% last year.

Luxembourg’s government said the inflation rate across the entire EU in 2019 was 1.47%, including 1.25% in Belgium, 1.3% in France, 1.35% in Germany and 2.68% in the Netherlands.

The economy ministry report was published on 31 March.