18/06/2024 (Agence Europe) – According to data that Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) published on Tuesday, 18 June, the annual inflation rate in the euro area stood at 2.6% in May, compared to 2.4% in April. The lowest annual rates were observed in Latvia (0.0%), Finland (0.4%), and Italy (0.8%), whereas the highest rates were recorded in Romania (5.8%), Belgium (4.9%), and Croatia (4.3%). There was a steady rise in prices in France (2.6%) and Germany (2.8%) and a sharp rise in prices in Spain (3.8%). The biggest contributions to the annual inflation rate in the euro area came from services (+1.83 percentage points or pp), followed by food, alcohol, and tobacco (+0.51 pp); non-energy industrial goods (+0.18 pp); and energy (+0.04 pp). (MB)