What EU country had the highest annual inflation rate in May 2024?

Romania reported the highest annual inflation rate in the European Union in May 2024, of 5.8%, followed by Belgium (4.9%) and Croatia (4.3%), new data has shown.

According to Eurostat data, high inflation rates were also reported in Hungary (3.9%), Spain (3.8%), Portugal (3.8%) and Austria (3.3%).

At the other end of the spectrum, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in Latvia (0.0%), Finland (0.4%) and Italy (0.8%).

In the European Union, annual inflation stood at 2.7% in May, up from 2.6% in April, while a year earlier, the year-on-year rate stood at 7.1%.

In the countries that comprise the euro area, meanwhile, the annual inflation rate stood at 2.6% in May, up from 2.4% in April, while a year earlier, the inflation rate was 6.1%, Eurostat said.

The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate in May came from services (rising by 1.83 percentage points), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.51 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+0.18 pp) and energy (+0.04 pp).

Inflation rate by EU Member State (May 2024)