The inflation rate remained unchanged at 7.2% in May 2024, according to the Consumer Price Index published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
This stability is due, on the one hand, to the acceleration in the rate of increase in food prices (9.7% in May 2024 compared with 9.2% in April 2024) and to the deceleration in the increase in prices in the ‘clothing and footwear’ group and in the ‘restaurants, cafés and hotels’ group.
The rise in food prices was mainly due to a 35% increase in coffee powder prices, 27.8% in sheepmeat prices, 21.9% in edible oils, 16.6% in condiments and 15.7% in beef prices. Over the year as a whole, prices of manufactured goods were up by 7% owing to the 9.5% rise in prices of clothing products (compared with 9.7% in April 2024) and the 8.8% rise in prices of household products.
In services, prices upped by 5.5% year-on-year, mainly due to the 10.2% rise in prices for restaurant, café and hotel services (compared with 10.4% in April 2024).
The core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) fell slightly to 6.8% from 6.9% last month. The prices of unregulated products rose by 8% year-on-year and those of regulated by 4.6%. Free food products were up by 10.6%, compared with 3.6% for regulated food products.
