Eurozone, inflation at 6.1% in May, it was 7% in April: here’s what happens – Corriere.it

Inflation in the «Euro Area» increased by 6.1% in May, down from 7% in April, according to Eurostat’s flash estimate. On a cyclical basis, the index remained flat. The slowdown is due to energy goods and also to food goods. Analyzing the main components of inflation, in fact food, alcohol and tobacco products record, according to estimates, an annual rate of 12.5% ​​in May compared to 13.5% in April, followed by non-energy industrial goods (5 .8% compared to 6.2% in April), services (5% against 5.2% in April) and energy (-1.7%, against 2.4% in April).

The reactions

The inflation trend is pointing «clearly towards a slowdown but we are still a long way from our target around 2%», comments the vice president of the ECB Luis De Guindos interviewed by the Spanish radio rneunderlining how in the monetary tightening initiated by the central institution, “a large part of the journey has been covered but the last stretch still remains”.

The president of the ECB

«Inflation is too high today and will remain so for too long. We are determined to bring it back to our medium-term target of 2% in a timely manner,” said ECB President Christine Lagarde, speaking at a conference organized by German banks in Hanover. For this reason, she added, «we raised rates at the fastest pace ever and we have made it clear that there is still a lot to do to bring interest rates to sufficiently restrictive levels». «These increases are already having a strong impact on banks’ lending conditions, also here in Germany. And we know that, after having increased so much and so quickly, a significant tightening is still planned”, stressed Lagarde for which “it remains uncertain how strong the transmission of our policy will be”, for which “we need to continue our hike cycle until we are sufficiently confident that inflation is able to return to our target in a timely manner. At the same time, we need to carefully assess the strength of monetary policy transmission to financing conditions, the economy and inflation.