Eurozone inflation has fallen more than economists expected to hit its lowest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, but the head of the European Central Bank signalled more interest rate rises were needed to tame persistent price pressures.

Annual consumer prices in the 20-country single currency bloc rose 6.1 per cent in the year to May, a decline from 7 per cent in April, according to data published by the EU statistics agency Eurostat on Thursday. It is the lowest level since February 2022 and was below the 6.3 per cent forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

ECB president Christine Lagarde said in a speech shortly after the data was released that inflation was still “too high” and more interest rate rises were needed to bring it down to its 2 per cent target.