Eurozone inflation goes up to 7% for first time in 7 months

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 May 2023 13:14

According to Eurostat, Latvia maintains the highest inflation at 15%, followed by Slovakia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

A torn European Union flag is placed on euro banknotes on September 7, 2022. (Reuters)

Citing preliminary data, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat reported on Wednesday, that inflation in the Eurozone has gone up for the first time in five months to 7%.

This follows after Eurostat relayed that consumer prices increased in March from 6.9% as higher services and energy costs offset a slowdown in food price growth.

Services inflation, driven by labor costs, jumped to 5.2% in April from 5.1% in March, while energy prices were back up after a slight decrease in March, and food, alcohol, and tobacco prices increased 2.75% in April but were lower than the 3.12% jump in March.

Excluding food and energy prices, core inflation slowed down from 7.5% to 7.3%.

According to Eurostat, Latvia maintains the bloc's highest inflation at 15%, followed by Slovakia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Inflation has been recording above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2% target for nearly two years, with rates being hiked since last July to curb double-digit growth in consumer prices. Rates were increased last week to 3.25% by the ECB and another hike is due at its next meeting in June.

The European Union faced a massive energy crisis and a hike in inflation after the start of the war in Ukraine. The situation worsened ever since the Western sanctions against Russia were implemented, disrupting supply chains and energy prices.

"The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (26.2%), Latvia (21.4%), and Czechia (19.1%). Compared with December, annual inflation fell in eighteen Member States and rose in nine," Eurostat added back in February.