Euro area annual inflation was 1.4% in may, from 1.9% in April. The rate stood at 0.1% in May 2016.
The annual inflation rate in the European Union stood at 1.6% in May, from 2% in April.
The lowest annual rates in May were registered in Ireland (0%), Romania (0.5%), Denmark and the Netherlands (both 0.7%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (3.5%), Lithuania (3.2%) and the UK (2.9%). Compared with April, inflation dropped in 24 EU member states, remained flat in one state and grew in three states.
The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from fuels for transport (+0.19 percentage points), while telecommunications (-0.10 percentage points) had the biggest downward impact.