Cyprus annual inflation up in May

Annual inflation in Cyprus rose to 3.7% in May, compared to 3.6% in April, according to figures released on Thursday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Euro area annual inflation was 2.4% in May 2012, down from 2.6% in April. A year earlier, the rate was 2.7%.

In May 2012, the lowest annual rates were observed in Greece and Sweden (both 0.9%) and Bulgaria (1.8%), and the highest in Hungary (5.4%), Estonia (4.1%), Cyprus and Malta (both 3.7%).

Compared to April 2012, the annual inflation fell in twenty Member States, remained stable in three and rose in three.

The lowest 12-month averages up to May 2012 were registered in Sweden (1.1%), Ireland (1.5%) and Greece (2.1%), and the highest in Estonia (4.7%), Hungary (4.5%) and Slovakia (4.1%).

The main components with the highest annual rates in May 2012 were alcohol & tobacco (4.7%), housing (4.0%) and transport (3.7%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-3.3%), education (0.7%) and recreation & culture (1.3%). Concerning the detailed sub-indices, fuels for transport (+0.22 percentage points), gas (+0.12), electricity and tobacco (+0.09 each) had the largest upward impacts on the headline rate, while telecommunications (-0.19), audio-visual equipment, cars and rents (-0.06 each) had the biggest downward impacts.