Headline inflation in the euro area is expected to have risen very slightly in April, according to an estimate by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. In a document published on Tuesday 2 May, Eurostat estimates that the annual inflation rate in the euro area reached 7% in April, compared to 6.9% in March, measured in the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP).
Core inflation may have peaked. Growth in consumer prices excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco is estimated to have slowed slightly in April, with annual inflation reaching 5.6%, compared with 5.7% in March.
The growth of consumer prices in the ‘food, alcohol and tobacco’ component is said to have slowed down more markedly; it stood at 13.6% in April, compared with 15.5% the previous month.
The annual rate of consumer prices for energy is expected to rise again in April, with an estimated annual rate of 2.5%, after the significant fall in March 2023, when the rate was -0.9%. This is still a far cry from the 37.5% annual rate posted by the energy component in April 2022, at the height of the recent energy - and inflationary - crisis.
The annual inflation rate for services is estimated to have risen very slightly to 5.2% in April, from 5.1% in March.
Finally, the increase in consumer prices for industrial goods excluding energy, with an annual rate of 6.2% in April, would be down from 6.6% in March.
These figures cover large differences between euro area Member States, from Luxembourg, where annual inflation is estimated at 2.7% in April, down from 2.9% in March, and Belgium, where it is estimated at 3.3%, down from 4.9% in March, to Latvia, where it is estimated at 15.0%, down from 17.2% in March.
Link to the estimate: https://aeur.eu/f/6na (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)