Spain consumer prices rise 3.4 pc in May

MADRID: Spain's consumer prices rose 3.4 percent in the year to May, official data showed Tuesday, the inflation rate barely easing despite feeble economic growth.

In April annual consumer price inflation had touched a 30-month peak of 3.5 percent, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

In recent months, soaring fuel costs, higher tariffs on cigarettes and a slight recovery in the property market have helped push up prices.

In May, the price of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes leapt 14.7 percent, transport costs were up 7.9 percent and housing 7.6 percent, the INE said.

The rate of 3.4 percent is far higher than eurozone average of 2.7 percent in May.

Pounded by the double-punch of an international financial crisis and the bursting of a property bubble, Spain plunged into a recession with a 3.7-percent GDP contraction in 2009.

The economy stabilised last year, shrinking by just 0.1 percent.

But the unemployment rate poses a major economic challenge, soaring to 21.29 percent in the first quarter of this year -- the highest in the industrialised world.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011