Twelve-month inflation rose to 1.6% in May across the euro zone, up from 1.5% in April, official figures confirmed today.
The figures produced by the European Union's Eurostat data agency showed that inflation in the common currency area is at its highest since December 2008.
Euro zone inflation has risen, almost continuously, from 0.5% last November as the bloc emerges from the worst recession since the 1930s.
For the 27-nation European Union as a whole, May's inflation rate was unchanged at 2%, the figures show.
The latest euro zone increase moves the figures closer to the European Central Bank's core economic target of inflation at close to but below 2%.
National inflation rates ranged widely within the nations sharing the euro, underlining the problems involved in running a common currency across such disparate economies.
Twelve-month inflation rates hit 5.3% in Greece, the subject of a multi-billion euro bailout package, while prices in Ireland dropped by 1.9%.
