Eurozone inflation soared to a new all-time high in February, boosted by a steady stream of energy prices and intensifying pressure on the European Central Bank, which will have to respond to the price spurt at a time when the biggest crisis in Western relations -Russia of recent decades threatens to derail the economic recovery.
In particular, inflation in the 19 countries that share the euro climbed to 5.8% in February from 5.1% in January, according to the initial estimate published today by Eurostat. Analysts’ average estimates put inflation at 5.4%.
Data from the European Statistical Office showed a jump in inflation of 6.3% in Greece in February, from 5.5% in the previous month.
The rise in inflation was fueled by a 32% jump in energy costs. In particular, according to Eurostat estimates, energy is expected to show the highest annual rate in February (31.7% compared to 28.8% in January), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (4.1% compared with 3.5% in January), non-energy industrial goods (3.0%, compared with 2.1% in January) and services (2.5% compared to 2.3% in January).
With energy prices plummeting due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressures are expected to intensify in the coming months, analysts say.
Structural inflation, excluding energy, food and tobacco, rose to 2.7% in February from 2.3% in January, according to Eurostat data.
Source: Capital
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