Weekly Market Watch
Annual inflation was 2.0% in May-24
In May-24, annual inflation rose to 2.0%, up from the 1.5% print in previous month. This increase was primarily driven by a 3.8% y/y rise in imported inflation (+3.5% in Apr-24), followed by a 2.5% y/y increase in domestic inflation (flat m/m). Notably, core inflation, excluding volatile food, energy and tobacco prices, reduced to 1.7% y/y in May-24 from 2.3% y/y recorded in previous month.
By categories, annual inflation in May-24 was mostly driven by price changes in transport (+12.3% y/y, +1.44ppts), hotels & restaurants (+7.7% y/y, +0.25ppts), alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+3.5% y/y, +0.24ppts), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+0.7% y/y, +0.22ppts), education (+3.6% y/y, +0.16ppts) and clothing and footwear (-3.8% y/y, -0.17ppts) categories.
International reserves at US$ 4.6bn in May-24
Gross international reserves decreased by 8.0% y/y to US$ 4.6bn in May-24, according to NBG. On a monthly basis, the reserves were down by 4.5% (-US$ 214.3mn). Notably, there were 2 FX auctions in May, where NBG sold US$ 108.7mn. Other changes in reserves were attributed to the government and/or banking sector FX operations, and likely also to NBG’s FX trading via BMatch platform (information will be available on 27 May).