In May, inflation in the 38-state bloc reached 6.5% annually, registering drops in all the countries of the bloc, with the exception of the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.
In any case, the level of prices between the countries of the organization is uneven: in Costa Rica, Greece and Denmark it was below 3% per year; while in Hungary and Türkiye they registered 21.5% and 39.6%, respectively.
The core or underlying indicator, which excludes food and energy values, averaged 6.9% in May, two tenths less than in April, the Paris-based agency said.
This means that this index, in the sights of the main central banks when deciding to continue or end the rise in interest rates, continues to decline, but it does so at a slower rate than the general data.
This is precisely what led the Federal Reserve (FED) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to anticipate new rate hikes in the coming months. Services, one of the main components of core inflation, fell from 6% to 5.7% annually in May.
On the other hand, energy prices, one of the main drivers of inflation at the beginning of the escalation, fell to 5.1% per year and 0.7% per month, although it continues to be above 10% in Latvia, Italy , Czech Republic, Colombia and Hungary.
With regard to food, prices continue to slow down, totaling 11%, after 12.1% in April.
Among the various blocks of member countries, inflation in the G7 was below the general rate, falling from 5.4% in April to 4.6%.
All the countries in the group of powers registered drops compared to April, with the exception of Great Britain, a country that also suffered a rise in core inflation.
The core components were precisely the main drivers of inflation in all the G7 countries, with the exception of Italy and Japan, where energy and food continue to be the main contributors.
For its part, in the 20 countries of the Eurozone, inflation fell from 7% to 6.1%, and the leading indicator published by Eurostat anticipates a new fall of 5.5% in June.
In this case, once again, there is great variability between countries: while in Germany inflation rose to 6.8%; in Spain it stood at 1.9%, a figure even lower than the 2% annual goal to which the ECB aspires.
Finally, Among the G20 countries, inflation fell from an average of 6.5% in April to 5.9% in May, with falls in Brazil, India and South Africa, and increases in Argentina.
Source: Ambito
