His fall inflation started in October 2022, continued in May 2023, according to estimates made yesterday Eurostat for the harmonized consumer price index, it was formed in Greece at the level of 4.1% in the previous month.

However, on a monthly basis, there is a slight increase of 0.6%, indicating that rising prices for food and services. At 4.1%, Greece ranks fifth with the lowest inflation in the Eurozone after Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and Cyprus.

The formation of inflation at low levels is largely associated with lower energy prices. It is worth noting that Greece recorded in May 2023 the second largest decline in energy prices among the 12 eurozone member states for which data is available. In particular, prices fell by 21.1% year on year.

To a lesser extent, the assessment of food and services continues.

The largest decline was recorded in Belgium (32.5%). At the eurozone level, the harmonized consumer price index is estimated at 6.1% in May 2023 from 7% in April 2023, slightly lower than expected. On a monthly basis, there are no changes.

As Alfa-Bank points out in the Weekly Economic Development Bulletin, one of the reasons for the milder inflation in our country compared to the Eurozone is the fact that the harmonized consumer price index, which includes energy, has been declining since February (February: -5.8%, March: -14.7%, April: -18%), due in part to base effects. It is noted that the increase in energy prices in Greece since the beginning of 2022 has been more intense than in the Eurozone (56% vs. 40% on an annual basis on average from March to September 2022). Thus, the growth rate of the general price level in our country exceeded the growth rate of the Eurozone since the beginning of last year, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they accelerated.

Starting from the autumn of 2022, inflation in Greece is slowing down, mainly due to lower energy prices. At the same time, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages in the eurozone are growing faster than in Greece (15% vs. 11%). However, core inflation, that is, the general figure excluding energy and food, is growing in Greece (7.2% in April), while in the Eurozone it has remained in the region of 5.6% over the past three months. However, in May, structural inflation in the euro area was 6.9%, and excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco – 5.3%.