You are here

Annual inflation up to 1.5%

17/06/2021 14:48

The euro area annual inflation rate was 2.0% in May 2021, up from 1.6% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 0.1%. European Union annual inflation was 2.3% in May 2021, up from 2.0% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 0.6%. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

According to Eurostat, inflation was 1.5% for Cyprus in May, up from 1,2% in April, while a year earlier this rate was  -1.4%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (-1.2%), Malta (0.2%) and Portugal (0.5%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (5.3%), Poland (4.6%) and Luxembourg (4.0%).

Compared with April, annual inflation fell in four Member States, remained stable in one and rose in twenty-two. In May, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate 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).

Meanwhile, in April 2021 compared with March 2021, seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector decreased by 2.2% in the euro area and by 1.6% in the EU, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In March 2021, production in construction rose by 4.1% in the euro area and by 3.5% in the EU. In April 2021 compared with April 2020, production in construction increased by 42.3% in the euro area and by 32.7% in the EU.

In the euro area in April 2021, compared with March 2021, civil engineering decreased by 6.1% and building construction by 1.0%. In the EU, civil engineering decreased by 5.4% and building construction by 0.7%.

Among Member States for which data are available, the largest decreases in production in construction were recorded in Hungary (-7.3%), Germany (-4.3%) and Slovenia (-3.4%). The highest increases were observed in Romania (+7.8%), Poland (+4.9%) and Bulgaria (+2.3%).

In the euro area in April 2021, compared with April 2020, building construction increased by 43.7% and civil engineering by 30.4%. In the EU building construction increased by 33.9% and civil engineering by 22.4%.

Among Member States for which data are available, the highest increases in production in construction were observed in France (+160.4%), Belgium (+45.2%) and Austria (+37.3%). The largest decreases were recorded in Hungary (-7.1%), Sweden (-5.5%) and Poland (-4.2%).