Eurozone price hike in the fifth month of 2022 capitalizes on a 39.2% year-on-year increase in energy costs
Annual inflation in the eurozone was 8.1% in May, compared to the 7.4% recorded in April and March, representing the highest price increase in the eurozone in the entire historic series, according to the advance of the eurozone. data published by the Community’s statistical office, Eurostat, increasing the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB), which will meet again next week.
According to the Statistical Office, the price increase in the eurozone in the fifth month of 2022 corresponds to the 39.2% year-on-year increase in energy prices, which accelerated from 37.5% in April, while the increase in the price of fresh food in May 9.1% year on year, one tenth less than the previous month.
Services, in turn, became 3.5% more expensive year on year, compared to 3.3% in the previous month, while non-energy industrial goods prices rose 4.2%, four-tenths more than in April.
Excluding the effect of energy, annual inflation in the eurozone stood at 4.6% in May, compared to 4.1% in the previous month, while also considering the effect of fresh food prices, alcohol and tobacco, the Core inflation reached a record high of 3.8%, compared to 3.5% in April.
Of 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 inflation rate of 5.8% recorded in France, prices also rose at a record pace in Germany in May, with an annual increase of 8.7%, while in Italy, the euro’s third-largest economy harmonized inflation climbed to 7.3%.
In the case of Spain, harmonized inflation stood at 8.5% in May, compared to 8.3% in April, reducing the unfavorable price differential relative to the euro area average to four-tenths.
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) will meet in the Netherlands on 9 June to discuss the new monetary policy measures and announce the institution’s new macroeconomic projections.
The ECB’s president, France’s Christine Lagarde, and the central bank’s chief economist, Ireland’s Philip Lane, favored a gradual normalization of the ECB’s monetary policy, including increases of 25 basis points in meetings and September, in order to leave negative interest rates behind us at the end of the summer.
Source: La Verdad
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