Eurozone inflation statistics revealed that consumer prices surged at a record rate in October, pushing the European Central Bank (ECB) to maintain enforcing its tightening of monetary policy. As a result, rates on Eurozone government bonds have increased, Al Jazeera reported.
According to a report released at the beginning of the week by Eurostat, the rate of inflation in the 19 nations that use the euro as their currency increased from 9.9% to 10.7% in October.
A more stringent metric that also excludes alcohol and cigarettes saw an increase from 4.8% to 5%, while inflation omitting unprocessed food and energy increased from 6% to 6.4%.
The ECB will likely continue raising rates in an effort to drive the Eurozone inflation back to its target level, according to the statistics.
“The ECB’s goal of pushing the inflation rate back to just under 2 percent on a sustainable basis seems a long way off,” senior economist at Commerzbank Christoph Weil noted, adding that the ECB expects inflation to be 9.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022. “This also increases the pressure on the ECB Governing Council to further raise key rates sharply,” he added.
