Inflation in Europe's top economy Germany slowed further in May, official data showed Thursday, a week ahead of a European Central Bank meeting that could decide on further economic stimulus. Price growth was just 0.6 percent year-on-year, federal statistics authority Destatis said in a preliminary reading, in line with forecasts from analysts and down from 0.9 percent in April. In February, before the coronavirus pandemic, German inflation was running at 1.7 percent. Prices for the goods tracked in the basket fell slightly this month, a breakdown showed, driven by an 8.5-percent drop in energy costs after last month's oil price crash. Meanwhile the pace of food inflation remained elevated compared with the pre-pandemic period. Overall price growth reached just 0.5 percent when measured using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the ECB's preferred inflation yardstick. That could encourage monetary policymakers next week to expand an unprecedented 750-billion-euro ($826 billion) bond-buying programme launched to cushion the impact of the pandemic. Falling inflation in Germany will drag price growth across the 19-nation eurozone away from the ECB's just-below-two percent target across the currency bloc. The Frankfurt institution's massive economic interventions are ultimately designed to stoke growth and in turn power inflation towards its target. tgb/hmn/jh