Belgium Inflation

Inflation eases in May from April

Latest reading: Harmonized consumer prices were up 4.0% on a year-on-year basis in May, following a 4.2% increase in the previous month. Relative to the prior month's figures, there were reduced price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+0.9% on a year-on-year basis vs +1.3% in April), transportation (+8.5% vs +9.3% in April) and housing and utilities (+7.2% vs +7.7% in April). In contrast, there were more notable price pressures for recreation (+5.1% vs +4.6% in April) and restaurants and hotels (+4.7% vs +4.1% in April). Meanwhile, consumer prices rose 4.1% on a year-on-year basis in May, following a 4.0% increase in the previous month. Lastly, harmonized consumer prices declined 0.33% in May in month-on-month terms, following a 1.32% increase in the prior month.

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Belgian inflation projections for the next ten years from a panel of 18 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable inflation forecast available for Belgian inflation.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Belgian inflation projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Belgian inflation forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.