Eurozone year-on-year inflation rate falls to its lowest level since the war in Ukraine

The year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area fell six tenths in June, to 5.5%, its lowest level since the start of the war in Ukraine in February last year, according to preliminary data published this Friday by Eurostat.

The rate thus chains eight months of decreases, from the maximum of 10.6% that it marked last October, and is below the 5.9% that it reached at the end of February 2022 after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. .

However, the underlying inflation rate, which excludes the effect of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco as they are the most volatile and serves as a reference for the European Central Bank when setting its monetary policy, rose one tenth to 5 ,4 %.

According to data from the community statistical office, In June, Spain was the second EU country with the lowest harmonized rate (1.6%)at the same level as Belgium and only above Luxembourg (1.0%).

Except in Germany, where the rate rose five tenths to 6.8%, the price increase moderated in all the major economic powers of the EU: in France it fell seven tenths, to 5.3%, in Italy it fell 1.3 percentage points, to 6.7%; and in the Netherlands it dropped four tenths, to 6.3%.

The highest levels of inflation were recorded in Slovakia (11.3%), Estonia (9%) and Croatia (8.3%),

In the euro area as a whole, the main driver of inflation in June was the 11.7% rise in the price of food, alcohol and tobacco, despite assuming a slowdown compared to the 12.5% ​​increase registered in May.

This was followed by the prices of non-industrial energy goods, with inflation of 5.5%, three tenths lower than the previous month, and services, which rose four tenths compared to May, up to 5.4%.

Energy prices, for their part, fell by 5.6% in June, compared to the 1.8% increase they had registered in May.

Regarding unemployment, the unemployment rate remained stable at 6.5% in May, its lowest level in history according to Eurostat.