According to a flash estimate from Eurostat, euro area annual inflation is expected to be 1.2% in May 2019, down from 1.7% in April. Economists had expected a slowdown to 1.3%.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in May (3.8%, compared with 5.3% in April), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (1.6%, compared with 1.5% in April), services (1.1%, compared with 1.9% in April) and non-energy industrial goods (0.3%, compared with 0.2% in April).

Eurostat also said that core CPI fell to 0.8% y/y in May from 1.3% y/y in April. Economists had expected a slowdown to 0.9%.