Ukraine’s annual consumer inflation decelerated to 8.2% year-over-year (y-o-y), while core inflation rose to 7.9%, showing the war in the Middle East continues to put strong pressure on prices in Ukraine. The new report published by the State Statistics Service on Tuesday showed uneven price dynamics – it is very early to say whether the peak of the price shock is over in Ukraine or whether price pressure will persist longer.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Monthly inflation may signal relief for the economy: consumer inflation decreased from 1.4% in April to 0.9% in May, and core inflation, which excludes volatile components, also decreased from 0.9% to 0.7% in May compared with the previous month. The yearly price comparison in the report shows only a light relief, not an overall easing of price pressure. Consumer inflation decelerated from 8.6% a month before – but core inflation accelerated to 7.9% year-over-year (y-o-y) from 7.6% a month earlier. The key driver of price pressure is, again, logistics costs, caused by the war in the Middle East. The annual rise in fuel prices reached 38.7% year-over-year. Road passenger transportation prices rose for more than 3% for another consecutive month – to 23.4%, while railway passenger transportation increased to 15.1%. That raised the whole transportation service by 2.5% to 22.6% in annual terms. Among food prices, which make up the majority of Ukrainians’ consumer basket, fish and fats ended in the top-5 categories for price increase, as did tobacco.