Greece moved deeper into deflation in May, with the consumer price index falling by 2.1 pct in the month compared with the same period last year, Eurostat said on Monday.

The EU executive’s statistics service, in a report released here, said that Bulgaria (-1.8 pct), Portugal (-0.3 pct) and Cyprus (-0.1 pct) recorded negative inflation rates, while Austria (1.5 pct), Luxembourg (1.4 pct) and Romania (1.3 pct) recorded the highest inflation rates in the EU.

In the Eurozone, the inflation rate eased to 0.5 pct in May from 0.7 pct in April, down from 1.4 pct a year earlier. In the EU, the inflation rate eased to 0.6 pct from 0.8 pct, down from 1.6 pct in May last year.

The inflation rate fell in 16 member states, it was unchanged in four and rose in seven member states. There were no figures for the UK.