driven by energy prices; food prices inflation continued to rise
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02/07/2020 – Annual inflation in the OECD area slowed to 0.7% in May 2020, compared with 0.9% in April and 1.7% in March, on the back of the largest fall in energy prices since September 2009. Energy prices declined by a further (minus) 13.4% in May, following the contraction of (minus) 12.2% in April. By contrast, food price inflation picked up to 4.5%, compared with 4.2% in April, the largest annual increase since December 2011. Excluding food and energy, OECD inflation was stable at 1.6% in May 2020.
Estimates for the OECD area in June are not currently available but Eurostat’s flash estimate1 for the Euro area points to inflation picking up to 0.3% compared to 0.1% in May.
Consumer prices, selected areas
May 2020, percentage change on the same period of the previous year, %
Source: Consumer price indices, OECD
Energy (CPI) and Food (CPI), selected areas
May 2018 – May 2020, percentage change on the same period of the previous year, %
Source: Consumer price indices, OECD
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1. Eurostat note: “Data collection for HICP has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis in all euro area countries. Eurostat and the Member States’ national statistical institutes have agreed a set of procedures to estimate prices that could not be collected due to mobility restrictions or closures of outlets. All information about these procedures is available on the Eurostat website section on inflation.”
Underlying data:
- OECD, annual inflation
- G20, annual inflation
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation by COICOP Division, current month (xlsx)
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation, selected components, historical series (xlsx)
