Italian annual inflation climbed 0.9% in May, down from a 1.1% annual rate in the prior month, preliminary data from the country's National Institute of Statistics showed.

The slowdown in harmonized annualized growth was primarily attributed to the prices of transport services, whose growth declined to 1.6% from 2.8%, as well as recreation and nonregulated energy products.

On a month-over-month basis, consumer prices edged up 0.1%, following a 0.2% growth rate recorded in the previous month.

The core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, declined to 0.5% in May from 0.7% in the prior month.

Separately, industrial producer prices in Italy declined 1.1% month over month in April.

Domestic producer prices were down 1.5%, while the non-domestic producer price index edged up 0.1%.