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Inflation in France accelerated at the fastest pace level in two years in May, feeding expectations that the European Central Bank could raise interest rates.

Consumer prices rose 2.8% from a year ago in May. Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted that French energy prices rose by 16.8% , following a 14.3% rise in April. He said:

Overall, these data highlight that consumers in France are now exposed to a much more severe inflation shock than elsewhere in the major EZ economies, depressing consumer sentiment.

…Elsewhere in France, consumers’ spending slipped at the start of Q2, and GDP growth for Q1 was revised down by 0.1pp, to -0.1%, adding to the recent negative shift in the French macro data, highlighted by the May surveys.

The fall in consumers’ spending, ex-services, was brought down by a plunge in energy consumption. Spending on diesel and petrol was pulled lower by higher prices, depressing volumes, while spending on electricity consumption remained subdued due to exceptionally warm weather.

Core spending, meanwhile, was stronger, rising by 0.2% after a 1.7% increase in March. Rising spending on clothing and in “other goods” offset declines in durables, including autos.

Meanwhile in Spain, the inflation reading for May came in at 3.6%, broadly in line with what economists had been expecting but also ahead of the ECB’s 2% target.

There will be more economic data out of Europe later today, as the ECB weighs how much the conflict in the Middle East is affecting inflation.