Inflation at 1.0% in May 2018

Euro area annual inflation rate was 1.9% in May 2018, up from 1.3% in April, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

A year earlier, the rate was 1.4%. Inflation in Cyprus stood at 1.0% in May 2018 (it was 0.9% a year earlier), up from -0.3% in April 2018. The European Union annual inflation was 2.0% in May 2018, up from 1.5% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 1.6%.

Figures published today by Eurostat say that the lowest annual rates were registered in Ireland (0.7%) and Greece (0.8%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.6%) and Estonia (3.1%). Compared with April 2018, annual inflation fell in one Member State, remained stable in one and rose in twenty-six. In May 2018, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from services (+0.72 percentage points), followed by energy (+0.58 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.50 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.08 pp).