Prices for European consumers will reach their highest level in 13 years. According to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, this October annual inflation in the Eurozone has increased by 4.1%.
Energy, one of the main causes of the increase in inflation, reached its highest annual rate in October. "The energy problem is very important. We see that about half of the inflation that we are currently experiencing in Europe is directly due to higher energy prices through the price of fuel that has reached a record and of course , also through the recent rise in gas prices.At the same time, we also see that the prices of goods have started to rise as supply shortages and container problems globally have raised prices for producers, who are now gradually being transferred to consumers.
But despite rising inflation, the ECB is not going to accelerate moves to end its pandemic stimulus. It does not foresee interest rate hikes in 2022, as the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, explained on Thursday. "We expect inflation to rise further in the short term, but then it will decline over the course of the next year."
Eurostat statistics also show that eurozone growth rose sharply by 2.2% in the third quarter of the year. Although there are strong differences between the Member States.
