June 10, 024

Consumer price index for May 2024

  • Inflation goes from 3.37% to 3.36% in May.
  • The consumer price index increased by 0.48 point or 0.37% this month.
  • Inflation based on the health index has fallen from 3.28% to 3.20%.
  • The smoothed health index stood at 128.62 points in May.
  • Food inflation (including alcoholic beverages) increases for the first time since March 2023 and amounts to 1.00% this month compared to 0.25% April. The contribution of food products to inflation currently amounts to 0.21 percentage point.
  • Core inflation, which does not take into account price evolutions of energy products and unprocessed food, has decreased for the 12th month in a row and now stands at 2.80% in May, versus 3.26% in April.
  • The most significant price increases in May were registered for fruit, clothes, rents, travels abroad and city trips, restaurants and cafés, fish and seafood, meat, dairy products, alcoholic beverages and holiday villages. However, motor fuels, electricity and vegetables have had a decreasing effect on the index.

Inflation amounts to 3.36% in May compared to 3.37% in April and 3.18% in March. Inflation based on the health index amounts to 3.20% this month compared to 3.28% in April and 3.09% March Inflation without energy decreased to 2.64%, compared to 2.87% in April and 3.86% in March. Core inflation, which does not take into account price evolutions of energy products and unprocessed food, stood at 2.80% in May, compared to 3.26% in April and 3.85% in March.

Comment on inflation

With regard to energy, we see a positive inflation. It now stands at 11.17%, compared to 9.19% last month and -1.61% in March. For electricity, inflation is currently at 3.6% compared to 1.9% last month. For natural gas, it went from 87.5% last month to 84.4% this month. Compared to last month, natural gas prices increased by 0.6% and those for electricity decreased by 2.9%. The rise in inflation in recent months is due to the phase-out of the impact of the basic package for electricity and natural gas. The last effect of the basic package disappeared from the price index in March. The disappearance of the basic package will therefore continue to have an upward impact on inflation up to and including February 2025. Prices for domestic heating oil, calculated based on a smoothed 12-month moving average, have decreased by 2.9% in one year. Motor fuels cost 5.1% more than in May last year and have decreased by 2.3% this month compared to the previous month.

Inflation for services has decreased to 3.88 % from 4.93 %. Inflation for rents has decreased to 5.10% from 5.43%. Food inflation (including alcoholic beverages) now stands at 1.00% compared to 0.25% last month. This inflation peaked at 17.02% in March 2023.

Energy inflation goes from 9.19% in April to 11.17% in May and accounts for 0.95 percentage point to total inflation. With an inflation of 1.00%, food products account for 0.21 percentage points.

Source: STATBEL
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