Prices in the Euro Zone Hit Record High for the Seventh Month in a Row

June 17, 2022

Annual inflation in the euro area hits a record high for the seventh month in a row at 8.1% in May 2022 (April 7.4%), while the rate was 2.0% a year earlier.

Annual inflation in the European Union reached 8.8% (April 8.1%), while it was 2.3% a year earlier.

The lowest annual rates were recorded in France and Malta at 5.8% and Finland at 7.1%, while the highest were Estonia at 20.1%, Lithuania at 18.5% and Latvia at 16.8%. In comparison to April, the annual inflation only fell in one Member state and rose in twenty-six.

The largest contributors to the annual euro area inflation were Energy (+3.87 percentage points, pp), food, alcohol and tobacco (+1.59 pp), services (+1.46 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (1.13 pp).

Rising prices have been intensified over recent months by the war in Ukraine, particularly food and energy costs.

Energy costs increased by 39.2% in May (April 37.5%) and food, alcohol and tobacco prices increased by 7.5% (April 6.3%). Inflation without energy and food prices still increased from 3.5% to 3.8%. This is still below the close to 6% core inflation being experienced currently in the U.S. and the U.K.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said she was anticipating a rate rise at the central bank’s meeting in July and “we are likely to be in a position to exit negative interest rates by the end of the third quarter.

 

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2022-06-17T11:02:13-05:00