Luxembourg (APA/dpa-AFX) - In the euro zone, consumer prices have continued to soar, pushing inflation to a record high. The strongest driver of inflation remains high costs for energy. In March, consumer prices rose by 7.5 percent year-on-year, as the statistics office Eurostat announced on Friday in Luxembourg after a first estimate.
Analysts were surprised by the strength of the price jump. On average, they had only expected the inflation rate to rise from 5.9 percent in February to 6.7 percent. Inflation in the euro area has never been this high since the introduction of the single currency in 1999, and inflation has been steadily strengthening since last summer, with record levels already reached recently. Month-on-month, consumer prices rose by 2.5 percent in March. Here, too, the jump in prices was much stronger than expected.
Once again, inflation was driven by an extremely sharp increase in the price of energy, which rose by 44.7 percent year-on-year. Food and beverages were 5.0 percent more expensive than a year ago. Excluding energy, food, and beverages, the core consumer price rate rose to 3.0 percent in March from 2.7 percent the previous month. Core inflation is less susceptible to fluctuation and is therefore regarded by many economists as a reliable measure of the inflation trend