The year-on-year inflation rate in the euro zone stood at 8.1% in May, compared to the 7.4% registered in April and March, which represents the highest rise in prices in the euro region of the entire the historical series, according to the advance of the data published by the community statistics office, Eurostat, which adds pressure to the European Central Bank (ECB), which will meet again next week.
According to the community statistical office, the rise in prices in the euro zone in the fifth month of 2022 responds to the 39.2% year-on-year rise in the price of energy, which accelerated from 37.5% in April, while that the increase in the price of fresh food in May was 9.1% year-on-year, one tenth less than the previous month.
In turn, services became more expensive by 3.5% year-on-year, compared to 3.3% in the previous month, while the prices of non-energy industrial goods rose by 4.2%, four tenths more than in April.
By excluding the impact of energy from the calculation, the interannual inflation rate in the euro zone stood at 4.6% in May, compared to 4.1% in the previous month, while also excluding the effect of prices of fresh food, alcohol and tobacco, the core inflation rate reached an all-time high of 3.8% from 3.5% in April.
Among the eurozone countries, the largest price increases were registered in Estonia (20.1%), Lithuania (18.5%) and Latvia (16.4%), while the least strong increases were registered in Malta ( 5.6%), France (5.8%) and Finland (7.1%).
In addition to the record harmonized inflation of 5.8% registered in France, prices also rose at a record pace in Germany during the month of May, with a year-on-year rise of 8.7%, while in Italy, the third largest economy in the euro , harmonized inflation climbed to 7.3%.
In the case of Spain, the harmonized inflation rate stood at 8.5% in May, compared to 8.3% in April, reducing the unfavorable price differential with respect to the euro area average to four tenths.
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled to meet on June 9 in the Netherlands to discuss the new monetary policy measures and announce the institution’s new macroeconomic projections.
The president of the ECB, the French Christine Lagarde, as well as the chief economist of the central bank, the Irishman Philip Lane, have been in favor of a gradual normalization of the ECB’s monetary policy, including increases of 25 basic points in the July meetings and September, in order to put negative interest rates behind us at the end of the summer.
