Greece's inflation rate in May was 2.6 percent, the lowest year-on-year level in the last eight years, the Greek Development Ministry said Friday.

During the last 40 years, inflation rates had only fallen below 2.6 percent in May in 1999, 1969, 1968 and 1967, said the Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas.

Greek consumers now were much more optimistic about their household finances than they were in the first months of 2007 or in the same period of 2006, the minister added.

It was also reflected in the basket of 70 goods and services that make up the Consumer Price Index, of which 33 showed price increases under the overall May inflation rate, figures from Greece's National Statistics Service showed.

Source: Xinhua