ECONOMY: Cyprus inflation rises to 1.7pct in June

The rate of inflation in Cyprus grew to 1.7% in June, up from 1% the month before and 0.9% a year ago, according to Eurostat on Wednesday.

For the six-month period January – June, the biggest downward change was observed in clothing and footwear (-3.3%) and the biggest rise was transport (2.5%).

The largest change, for Cyprus, when compared to June 2017 and to the index of the previous month, was observed in energy with percentages of 9.8% and 3.5% respectively.

 According to Eurostat, euro area annual inflation rate was 2.0% in June, up from 1.9% in May. A year earlier, the rate was 1.3%.

European Union annual inflation was also 2.0% in June, stable compared with May. A year earlier, the rate was 1.5%.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Ireland (0.7%), Greece (1.0%) and Denmark (1.1%).

The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (4.7%), Estonia (3.9%) and Hungary (3.2%). Compared with May, annual inflation fell in three Member States, remained stable in two and rose in twenty-two.

In June, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+0.76 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+0.57 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.53 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.10 pp).

Meanwhile, production in construction increased in Cyprus by 3.7% in Q1 of 2018 on a quarterly basis and by 5.1% annually.

In May compared with April 2018, seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector increased by 0.3% in the euro area (EA19) and by 1.2% in the EU28.

In April, production in construction grew by 1.4% in the euro area and by 0.8% in the EU28. In May 2018 compared with May 2017, production in construction increased by 1.8% in the euro area and by 2.6% in the EU28.

Among Member States for which data is available, the highest increases in production in construction were recorded in Slovenia (+30.3%), Poland (+23.3%) and Hungary (+15.2%). Decreases were observed in France (-4.1%) and Bulgaria (-0.4%).