EU’s Inflation Accelerates

By Staff, Agencies 

The European Union’s statistics revealed that “The inflation in the euro area increased for the first time in five months in April, surging to 7%, office reported on Wednesday.”

Eurostat said consumer prices had risen from 6.9% in March as higher services and energy costs offset a slowdown in food price growth.

Services inflation, which is primarily driven by labor costs, accelerated to 5.2% in April from 5.1% in the previous month. Energy prices were up again after a slight decline in March. Food and tobacco prices were also up by 2.75% last month, but were lower than the 3.12% rise in March.

According to the report, core inflation – excluding food and energy prices – slowed to 7.3% from 7.5%, while an even narrower measure, which excludes alcohol and tobacco, declined from 5.7% to 5.6%.

Eurostat data showed that Latvia continued to struggle with the highest inflation at 15%, followed by Slovakia, Lithuania, and Estonia – all dealing with a double-digit surge in consumer prices among the 20-member Eurozone.