According to the report from Eurostat, in May 2020, a month still marked by COVID-19 containment measures, euro area annual inflation rate was 0.1%, down from 0.3% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 1.2%. Meanwhile, the core figures rose by 0.9% y/y during the reported month. The European Union annual inflation was 0.6% in May 2020, down from 0.7% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 1.6%. 

The lowest annual rates were registered in Estonia (-1.8%), Luxembourg (-1.6%), Cyprus and Slovenia (both -1.4%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Poland (3.4%), Czechia (3.1%) and Hungary (2.2%). Compared with April, annual inflation fell in twenty Member States, remained stable in two and rose in five.

In May, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.64 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.59 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.06 pp) and energy (-1.20 pp).