Consumer Prices, OECD – Updated 3 June

as food and services prices accelerate

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2 June 2022 – Consumer prices (CPI) in the OECD rose by 9.2% year-on-year in April 2022, compared with 8.8% in March 2022. Excluding food and energy, year-on-year inflation increased to 6.3% in April 2022, compared with 5.9% in March 2022.

Food price inflation in the OECD continued to strongly pick up, reaching 11.5% in April 2022 compared with 10.0% in March. Services prices accelerated in most OECD countries, rising by 4.4% year-on-year in April 2022 on average across 33 OECD countries, compared with 3.9% in March. These increases in food and services prices were partly offset by a temporary deceleration in energy prices to 32.5% year-on-year in April 2022, some 1.2 percentage points lower than in March.

Price developments varied somewhat across countries. Nine OECD countries recorded double-digit inflation rates, with the highest rates experienced in Turkey and Estonia. By contrast, inflation fell in five OECD countries, including Italy, Spain and the United States.

Consumer prices, selected areas

April 2022, percentage change on the same period of the previous year, %

Source: Consumer price indices, OECD

Year-on-year inflation on average in the G7 economies was stable at 7.1% in April. Energy prices remained the main contributor to inflation in France, Germany and Italy in April, while inflation excluding food and energy continued to drive inflation in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States (Graph 2).[1] Large increases in inflation were recorded in Japan and the United Kingdom, largely due to increase in inflation excluding food and energy in Japan and to increase in energy price inflation in the United Kingdom. By contrast, the slower inflation recorded in Italy and in the United States, reflects the slowdown in energy price inflation, and in the case of the United States, the deceleration in clothing and footwear prices, recreation and culture prices and non-energy transportation prices.

In the euro area, overall inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) was stable at 7.4% in April 2022. Excluding food and energy, inflation in the euro area increased to 3.5% in April, compared with 3.0% in March. Eurostat’s flash estimate for the euro area in May 2022 points to a record increase in year-on-year inflation and inflation excluding food and energy (to 8.1% and 3.8% respectively).

Year-on-year inflation in the G20 area rose markedly in April 2022, reaching 8.5% compared with 7.9% in March 2022, with significant rise in China and India.

Note: Due to the recent move to a new classification of consumer expenditures and the fact that some detailed series in this new classification (COICOP 2018) are still missing, contributions to CPI inflation in Japan cannot be calculated.

Source: Consumer price indices, OECD

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)
• G7 & non-OECD countries, zone aggregates, inflations rates, historical series graphs (xls)

• Consumer prices FAQs