Italy PM Draghi notes major impact of inflation on EU citizens

 

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Italy's Mario Draghi said on Tuesday that the EU's record inflation of 7.5% has begun to take its toll on citizens' purchasing power, and the EU's production levels.

Families and businesses have begun to suffer, while the European economy is slowing down.

"In the eurozone, inflation is at 7.5% in April and it is having a major impact on families' purchasing powers and businesses' levels of production. The European economy is slowing down," Draghi said at a session of the European Parliament, citing the IMF's revision of the forecast of EU economic growth down to 2.9% from 4% in 2022. 

The eurozone's GDP has grown by only 0.2% from January to March of 2022, compared to the same period of 2021, Draghi said.

In an article by Voice of America, the US government-owned media outlet adopted a headline that claims "China's lockdown has led to weaker demand for importers and higher prices in other countries." 

The global economy is witnessing an era of high inflation. A Labor Department in the US said on Tuesday that consumer prices in March jumped 8.5 percent more than the year before, marking the sharpest annual increase. 

The UK witnessed a 7.0 percent inflation in March from 6.2 percent in February, the highest level in three decades, according to the Office for National Statistics.  

In the Eurozone, inflation reached 7.5 percent in March, the highest level since the creation of the euro. The annual rate of inflation in Russia increased to 17.49 percent during the week ending April 8, the most since February 2002 and up from 16.7 percent the previous week, according to the country's economy ministry on Wednesday.