The consumer price index rose 0.1% in May in the eurozone, but showed no change compared with the same month last year, a phenomenon that has not occurred since the indicator was first introduced in 1997.

Eurostat, the EU's office of statistics, confirmed today that, as expected, there has been no inflation at all in the countries sharing the euro currency.

In May, Spain registered a year-on-year inflation of -0.9%, one of the six EU member states to register negative inflation.  Ireland heads the negative inflation group with 1.7% drop in prices over the past 12 months.

In the space of one year, inflation has dropped from 3.7% to 0% in the eurozone and from 4% to 0.7% across the 27 EU member states as a whole.

In Germany, the EU's strongest economy, prices have remained unchanged compared with last year.

A drop in energy prices has had the biggest effect on the overall price decrease, with an accumulative fall of 11.6% over the past 12 months.  Price drops were also registered in transport (-4.8%), communications (-1%) and housing (-0.1%).

On the other hand, prices have risen over the past year for alcohol and tobacco (3.3%), hotels and restaurants (2.2%) and household goods (1.8%).