2023-09-19 12:30:56
Prices continue to moderate gradually in the Eurozone. Inflation reached 5.2% in August, according to data published this Tuesday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). The data represents only a reduction of 0.1% compared to June, but put into perspective, inflation was at its lowest level since January 2022.
Spain continues to be one of the countries with the lowest prices, 2.3%, a rate also recorded by Denmark and Belgium. On the contrary, the highest inflation was recorded in Eastern Europe – Hungary (14.2%), Czechia (10.1%) and Slovakia (9.6%) -. At the European Union level, prices fell in fifteen Member States in August, remained stable in one and increased in another eleven countries.
By sector, services have contributed the most to inflation, with an increase of 2.4%, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco, with an increase of 1.98%. Energy, for its part, remains stable with a slight increase of three tenths compared to July.
In the last meeting of its Governing Council, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates to 4.5%, its highest level since May 2001. However, its president, French Christine Lagarde, assured that it has reached levels that “if maintained long enough, will contribute substantially to returning inflation” to its 2% medium-term objective.
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