Prices continue to shoot up in the eurozone with record inflation of 9.1%
A The year-on-year inflation rate in the euro zone stood at 9.1% in August, compared to the 8.9% registered in July, which represents the highest increase in prices in the euro area of the entire historical series and more than four times the price stability target of 2% of the European Central Bank (ECB), whose Governing Council will meet again next week.
According to preliminary data published by Eurostat, the rise in prices in the euro zone intensified in August, despite the fact that the year-on-year rise in energy prices slowed to 38.3% from 39.6% in July, while the increase in the price of fresh food was 10.9%, when in July it had been 11.1%.
However, services became more expensive by 3.8% year-on-year in August, one tenth more than the previous month, while the prices of non-energy industrial goods rose by 5%, compared to 4.5% in the previous month.
Excluding the impact of energy from the calculation, the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro zone stood at 5.8% in August, compared to 5.4% in the previous month, while also excluding the effect of the prices of fresh food, alcohol and tobacco, the core inflation rate has climbed to a record 4.3%, three tenths more than in July.
In the month of August, nine of the nineteen countries in the euro zone registered double-digit inflation rates, with the highest price increases in Estonia (25.2%), Lithuania (21.1%) and Latvia (20, 8%), while the least intense increases were observed in France (6.5%), Malta (7.1%) and Finland (7.6%).
In the case of Spain, the harmonized inflation rate stood at 10.3% in August, compared to 10.7% in July, which reduces to 1.2 percentage points the unfavorable price differential with respect to the average of the eurozone.
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), which decided at its last meeting, held on July 21, to raise interest rates by 50 basis points, will meet again on September 8 with the uncertainty as to whether it will repeat another half percentage point hike or even more aggressive with a 75 basis point hike.
.jpeg)
