Eurozone inflation confirmed at eight-month low

(Sharecast News) - Final estimates from Eurostat on Wednesday confirmed that eurozone inflation fell markedly last month, falling below the European Central Bank's 2% target for the first time in eight months. The annual change in the region's consumer price index was 1.9% in May, down from 2.2% in April, matching the initial estimate released two weeks ago.

This was the lowest level registered since September 2024.



While the year-on-year increase in food, alcohol and tobacco prices picked up to 3.2% in May from 3.0% previously, energy price deflation held steady at -3.6% and services inflation slowed significantly to 3.2% from 4.0%

The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items like food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, dropped to 2.3% from 2.7%, in line with the earlier estimate and the lowest rate since October 2021.

Countries with the lowest inflation in May were Cyprus (0.4%), France (0.6%) and Ireland (1.4%), while the highest rates were recorded in Estonia (4.6%), Croatia and Slovakia (both 4.3%).