Eurozone inflation remained below expectations in May

The European Statistical Office (Eurostat) has released consumer inflation data for the Euro Zone for May.

Eurozone annual consumer inflation, which was 7 percent in April, fell to 6.1 percent in May.

The average expectation of economists polled by Reuters and Bloomberg was that inflation would drop to 6.3 percent in May.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, was 5.6 percent in April and 5.3 percent in May. In the Reuters poll, the expectation of this data was 5.5 percent.

The fact that inflation fell more than expected eased the European Central Bank (ECB), which raised the policy rate by 375 basis points in the past year to 3.25 percent.

Food inflation fell from 13.5 percent to 12.5 percent, service inflation fell from 5.2 percent to 5 percent, and industrial product inflation fell from 6.2 percent to 5.8 percent.

The fall in energy prices had an impact on the fall in inflation in Europe.