The average inflation rate among the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations declined to 4.6% in May from 5.4% in April, hitting its lowest level since September 2021.
A new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that annualized inflation is trending lower in the U.S. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
The Paris-based economic organization said that the United Kingdom (U.K.) is the only country among wealthy G7 nations where inflation continues to rise.
Consumer prices in the U.K. rose to 7.9% in May compared to a year earlier, the OECD said, up from 7.8% in April.
In June, the Bank of England lifted interest rates by 50-basis points to 5%, a larger increase than many economists expected. Interest rates in the U.K. are now at their highest level since 2008.
The situation in the U.K. diverges from other major central banks that have been either slowing or pausing their interest rate hikes this year, including the Bank of Canada.
Globally, inflation slowed to 6.5% in May from 7.4% in April, the lowest level since December 2021, according to the OECD.
Between April and May of this year, inflation declined in all observed OECD nations except in the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.
The highest inflation rates worldwide remain in Hungary and Turkey, where they top 20%.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, declined across 33 OECD countries in May, dropping to 6.9% from 7.1% in April.
Energy inflation plunged by 5.1% in May when compared to the previous year, exerting the biggest downward pressure on consumer prices worldwide, according to the OECD.
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