LAST UPDATE 12:40
Inflation in the eurozone hit a new record high in May, testing the European Central Bank’s view that a gradual rise in interest rates from July would be enough to curb the persistent rise in prices.
Inflation in the eurozone jumped to 8.1% in May from 7.4% in April, compared with estimates for a rise of 7.7%, as price increases continued to widen.
In Greece, inflation jumped to 10.7% from 9.1% in April, which is the fifth highest percentagebehind 20.1% of Estonia, 18.5% of Lithuania, 16.4% of Latvia, and 11.8% of Slovakia.
The increase of the harmonized index of consumer prices to 10.7% in May for Greece foretells a new record high for the national consumer price indexwho is expected to be announced in the first days of June and far exceeding 11%.
Right now after Greece are the Netherlands with inflation of 10.2%, Belgium with 9.9% and Luxembourg with 9.1%. For the rest of the south, Italy had inflation of 7.3% in May, Spain 8.5% and Portugal 8.3%. The lowest inflation rate for May was recorded again in Malta with 5.6%, while the slightly higher, at 5.8%, was the inflation of France. Germany moved much higher with inflation of 8.7%.
Prices have risen sharply across Europe in the past year, first because of supply chain problems following the pandemic, then because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, suggesting a new era of rapid price growth sweeps the decade of particularly low inflation. . The prices of energy products increased by 39.2%, unprocessed foods (meat, fish, fresh vegetables and fruits) by 9.1% and processed foods, alcohol and tobacco by 7%.
Although inflation is four times higher than the ECB’s target of 2%, Bank members may be more concerned about the rapid rise in underlying prices, which indicate that what was originally considered a transient rise in prices now appears to be being incorporated. .
Structural inflation rose to 4.4% from 3.9% while the structural index, which also excludes alcohol and tobacco prices, rose to 3.8% year-on-year from 3.5% in April.
Source: Capital
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