Eurozone inflation rebounds to 2.6% in May due to food and energy prices
Inflation in the Eurozone stood at 2.6% year-on-year in the month of May, two tenths above the rise in prices observed in the month of April. This is reflected in the second estimate of the data published by the community statistics office Eurostat.
At the year-on-year inflation level, the Eurozone marked its first rebound since December of last year 2023 and It is at its highest level since last February. Regarding the European Union as a whole, the year-on-year price figure stood at 2.7% in the fifth month of the year, one tenth above the price increase in April.
The acceleration of price rise in the euro region reflected the 0.3% rise in the cost of energy, after falling 0.6% year-on-year in April, while fresh foods rose 1.8%, six tenths more.
On the other hand, the non-industrial energy goods They became more expensive by 0.7% in May, two tenths less than the previous month, but services rose by 4.1%, compared to 3.7% in April, thus reaching their highest level since October 2023.
When discounting the impact of energy on prices, the inflation rate rose to 2.8%, one tenth more than in April, while also excluding the cost of food, as well asl tobacco and alcohol, the underlying rate rose to 2.9% from 2.7%.
Between the Twenty seven, the lowest annual inflation rates were recorded in Latvia (0%), Finland (0.4%) and Italy (0.8%), while the highest were observed in Romania (5.8%), Belgium (4.9%) and Croatia (4.3%). Compared to April, annual inflation decreased in eleven Member States, it remained stable at two and increased by fourteen.
In the case of Spain, The harmonized inflation rate reached 3.8% last May, four tenths above the April reading, widening the price differential against the country with respect to the eurozone average to 1.2 percentage points.
