According to the report from Eurostat, the euro area annual inflation rate was 2.0% in May 2021, up from 1.6% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 0.1%. The core figures rose to 1.0%, beating the 0.9% consensus forecasts. European Union annual inflation was 2.3% in May 2021, up from 2.0% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 0.6%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Greece (-1.2%), Malta (0.2%) and Portugal (0.5%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (5.3%), Poland (4.6%) and Luxembourg (4.0%). Compared with April, annual inflation fell in four Member States, remained stable in one and rose in twenty-two.

In May, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+1.19 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.45 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.19 pp) and food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.15 pp).