According to provisional figures, the harmonised inflation rate for May most recently stood at 6.3% in Germany and 6.1% in the euro area as a whole. It is still too soon to speak of stable prices, even if these rates are considerably lower than they were last autumn.
The underlying price pressures are also far too high, and have hardly receded at all to date. In May, the core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) is likely to have stood at 5.1% in Germany and 5.3% in the wider euro area. Monetary policymakers therefore cannot and will not falter in the fight against inflation.