Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in May—39.2 per cent compared with 37.5 per cent in April. This was followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (7.5 per cent compared with 6.3 per cent in April), non-energy industrial goods (4.2 per cent compared with 3.8 per cent in April) and services (3.5 per cent compared with 3.3 per cent in April).

The euro area consists of Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)