Lowest annual rates were observed in Greece, Malta and Portugal

The euro area annual inflation rate for May was 2.0 per cent, which is up 0.4 per cent from the 1.6 per cent in April 2021.

The statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), which released its latest inflation numbers, notes that the inflation rate for May 2020 was 0.1 per cent. Additionally, in the European Union, the annual inflation was reported at 2.3 per cent, greater than April 2021 rate of 2.0 per cent, according to Eurostat.

For the same period last year, Eurostat says the inflation rate was 0.6 per cent. The lowest annual rates were observed in Greece (-1.2 per cent), Malta (0.2 per cent) and Portugal (0.5 per cent).

The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (5.3 per cent ), Poland (4.6 per cent) and Luxembourg (4.0 per cent). Compared with April, annual inflation decreased in four Member States, remained stable in one and increased in 22.

Eurostat reports that the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate in May 2021 came from: energy (+1.19 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.45 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.19 pp) and food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.15 pp).