EU Inflation Drops To Lowest Since Russia's Ukraine Invasion

Inflation in Europe has fallen to its slowest pace since Russia invaded Ukraine, bolstering the case for the region’s central bank to bring interest rate hikes to an end soon, Hanna Ziady reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The latest developments on the economic front could give the European Central Bank reason to pause interest rate hikes soon.

Consumer prices in the 20 countries that use the euro rose 6.1% last month compared with a year ago, easing from 7% in April, according to an initial estimate Thursday from the European Union’s statistics agency.

That’s the lowest rate of inflation since February 2022, when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, sending global energy prices soaring.

The pace of food price rises eased for the second month running in May, while energy prices actually fell. Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, slowed to 5.3% — a four-month low.

Inflation has fallen sharply in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, national data published Wednesday showed. Price rises eased across a broad range of product categories in Europe’s biggest economies.

That could give the European Central Bank reason to pause interest rate hikes soon, although ECB President Christine Lagarde said Thursday that policymakers still had “ground to cover to bring interest rates to sufficiently restrictive levels.”

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