In May, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 7.7 percent from 7.5 percent in April, reversing the downward trend observed since January.Higher inflation in May was due toincreases for alcohol and tobacco (from 6.7 percent to 7.0 percent);housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 8.6 percent to 11.8 percent, reflecting the an upward revision in water tariffs) and communication (from -4.9 percent to 0.6 percent, as the effect of the May 2011 downward revision in the mobile phone tariffs fell away). This was, however, largely offset by declines in inflation for clothing and footwear (from7.6 percent to 7.0 percent);furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 8.4 percent to 7.8 percent); transport (from 10.6 percent to 10.5 percent); recreation and culture (from 5.4 percent to 5.0 percent); restaurants and hotels (from 9.8 percent to 8.0 percent) and miscellaneous goods and services (from 2.0 percent to 1.8 percent). Inflation for food, health and education was unchanged at 7.6 percent, 6.0 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation was unchanged at 7.3 percent in May, while inflation excluding administered prices fell, from 6.6 percent to 6.5 percent.