Inflation in Greece stood at 3.9% in June, according to Eurostat's preliminary estimate, recording a significant easing from May's 4.9%, but remaining at levels significantly higher than the eurozone average, which fell to 2.8% from 3.2% a month earlier.
Despite the improvement in the picture, Greece continues to be among the countries with the highest inflationary pressures in the eurozone. Higher annual inflation was recorded only by Lithuania (5.5%), Bulgaria (5.3%), Croatia (4.2%) and Cyprus (4.0%), while Greece follows at 3.9%, as mentioned above.
The gap from the eurozone average remains noticeable, as Greek inflation is running 1.1 percentage points higher than the euro area's 2.8%.
At the eurozone level, the easing of inflation is mainly due to the slowdown in the rise of energy prices, which did increase by 8.7%, but at a clearly lower rate than May's 10.8%. Services remained the second most important source of inflationary pressures with an increase of 3.2%, while prices for food, alcohol and tobacco slowed to 1.6%.
The picture in the major eurozone economies was clearly milder. Inflation in Germany stood at 2.4%, in France at 2.0%, in Italy at 3.1% and in Spain at 3.6%, highlighting that Greece continues to face stronger inflationary pressures compared with the core of the eurozone.