At least there is a small ray of hope: the upward trend in prices in the euro zone eased off somewhat in November. Nevertheless, the European Central Bank is far from having reached its goal. It also expects inflation to be above the targeted level in the next three years.
The inflation rate in the euro zone is falling slightly for the first time in many months. Within a year, consumer prices climbed by 10.1 percent in November, according to a final estimate from the statistics office Eurostat. The first estimate at the end of November was still 10.0 percent. In October, the inflation rate was 10.6 percent.
Despite the slight decline, the European Central Bank (ECB) is far from having achieved its goal in combating the high price pressure. It also expects inflation to be above its two percent target for the next three years. For 2025, she assumes an inflation rate of 2.3 percent.
The euro central bank has meanwhile raised interest rates four times in a row within a few months – most recently on Thursday. It raised the key interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 2.50 percent. The deposit rate, which is decisive on the financial market and which financial institutions receive from the central bank for parking excess funds, was increased by the same amount to 2.00 percent.
ECB boss Christine Lagarde also promised further increases. The central bank wants to continue the pace of hikes by half a percentage point for the time being. Energy prices fueled inflation again significantly in November, even if the price increase was not quite as massive as recently.
Energy prices rose by 34.9 percent year-on-year after 41.5 percent in October. Food, alcohol and tobacco prices rose 13.6 percent from 13.1 percent in October. Non-energy industrial goods rose in November, as in October, by 6.1 percent. Prices for services increased by 4.2 percent in November after 4.3 percent in the previous month.
