Prices have not reached a ceiling in the eurozone, with a new historical record. In August, year-on-year inflation increased another two tenths, to 9.1%, according to data advanced this Wednesday by Eurostat.
Core inflation, which the European Central Bank (ECB) is watching closely to guide its monetary policy, also grows four tenths, to 5.5%. The figures thus increase the pressure on the entity chaired by Christine Lagarde to increase the rate of rise in interest rates, after the increase to 0.5% in July from 0%. Month on month, prices advanced five tenths.
The data is higher than expected by analysts, who expected 9%, according to Reuters.
In detail, electricity is what increased the most, 38.3%. It is somewhat less than 39.6% in July. They are followed by the group of food, alcohol and tobacco (10.6%), non-energy industrial goods (5%) and services (3.8%). No rubric goes down.
Among the 19 countries that use the euro, most are already above 9% inflation. Prices in Estonia rose 25.2%, the hardest hit, by 21.1% in Lithuania and 20.8% in Latvia. In a second group are countries with inflation higher than 10%, which includes Spain. This includes the Netherlands (13.6%), Slovakia (13.3%), Slovenia (11.5%), Greece (11.1%) and Spain (10.3%).
Above 9.1% on average are also Cyprus (9.6%), Portugal (9.4%) and Austria (9.2%). The most contained evolution is 6.5% in France, where there is greater control over the electrical mess that is dragging down prices. Germany, European locomotive, sees prices grow three tenths, to 8.8%, according to Eurostat, while Italy reaches 9%.
