In May, headline inflation remained at 4.5 percent, unchanged from April. Inflation increased for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 8.8 to 9.2 percent) and recreation and culture (from 4.2 to 4.3 percent). However, this was offset with inflation easing with respect to: clothing and footwear (from 5.8 to 5.6 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 5.0 to 4.8 percent); restaurants and hotels (from 8.2 to 7.7 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 6.7 to 6.5 percent). Inflation was unchanged for: food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.2 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (4.1 percent); health (7.6 percent); transport (1.0 percent); communication (0.4 percent); and education (7.4 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices also remained unchanged at 4.1 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.