This performance was mainly due to lower fuel and lubricant prices, and a drop in package tour prices now the Easter Campaign is over. In month-on-month terms, CPI fell by 0.1% in May, compared to the 0.5% increase in the same month of 2016.
Prices of energy products increased in May by 8.3% year-on-year, 3.7 points less than in April. This trend is due to the easing of fuel and lubricant prices, which fell from 11.5% year-on-year in April to 4.9% in May. Meanwhile, gas prices rose by 1.7 points to 8.3%, and the year-on-year performance of electricity prices remained unchanged at 16.2%.
Food prices grew by 1.2% in May, the same as in April. Unprocessed food prices increased by 2.8%, six tenths below last month's figure, driven by the price of pulses and fresh vegetables (down by 3.8 points to 3.3%) and, to a lesser extent, fresh fruit (down from 5% in April to 3.2% in May). Processed food, drinks and tobacco prices increased by 0.4% in May, two tenths more than in April, with a significant rise in the price of oils and fats, up from 0.5% in April to 2.3% in May.
Core inflation (which excludes the most volatile elements of CPI, fresh food and energy) eased by two tenths in May to 1%, due to the easing of prices of services and, to a lesser extent, of non-energy industrial goods (NEIG), partly offset by the faster growth rate of processed food prices. Prices of services eased by four tenths to 1.7%, as a result of the performance of package tours, where inflation dropped from 20.9% in April to 7.9% in May. The Easter calendar effect played a part in this trend; in 2017 Easter fell in April while in 2016 it fell in March. Meanwhile, NEIG prices slowed by two tenths to 0.1%, on the back of falling prices of clothing and footwear which went from 0.3% in April to 0.1% in May.
In month-on-month terms, the CPI decreased by -0.1% in May 2017 compared to a growth of 0.5% recorded in the same month of 2016. Broken down by components, energy product prices fell by 1.1%, following the 2.3% rise in the previous year, services shrank by 0.4% after the 0.1% growth in May 2016; NEIG prices grew by 0.7%, a tenth less than in May the previous year, and food prices increased by 0.3%, the same as in May 2016.
Within the food category, prices of unprocessed food rose by a month-on-month 0.3% in May 2017 (versus 0.8% in the same month of 2016), as did processed food (no change over the previous year).
Year-on-year CPI shrank in May in all autonomous regions, with the biggest fall over April's figure being recorded by Asturias (one point to 1.6%), and the smallest falls, both by three tenths, being recorded by the Canary Islands (2% in May) and Extremadura (1.7%).
The year-on-year constant tax CPI rate for May stood at 1.9%, the same as the general CPI.
The INE has also published the harmonised CPI (CPIA) for May 2017, with a year-on-year variation of 2%, down by six tenths over April's figure. Meanwhile, the rate advanced by Eurostat for the Eurozone was 1.4% in May, half a point lower than the previous month, giving rise to an inflation differential favourable to Spain over the Eurozone of 0.6 points, one tenth lower than April's figure
EFE