[Economics] Inflation does not let up in Europe either and continues to squeeze the world economy

[Draeno]

 

Year-on-year inflation in the euro area reached 8.5% in February, against 8.6% in January, driven by the increase in food prices, which even exceeded those of energy.

According to numbers from the European statistics agency Eurostat, this is the fourth consecutive drop in the inflation rate, but most analysts and experts expected a more marked contraction closer to 8%.

Eurozone inflation had reached a record high of 10.6% in October 2022. Since then, it began a slow retreat that strengthened the optimism of analysts and experts in a further drop in February.

According to Eurostat, in February the prices of food (which are counted as a package together with tobacco and alcoholic beverages) increased more than those of energy, as they had been for practically the entire year 2022. This organization also pointed out that in February the Food prices were the main responsible for the inflation rate, with an estimated increase of 15.0%, whereas in January they had registered an increase of 14.1%.

Conversely, energy slowed down in February, with 13.7%, whereas in January the interannual rate was 18.9%. The last time that food had more weight than energy in the final result of inflation was two years ago, in February 2021.

From that point on, energy began a strong growth trend, which became critical with the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an event that caused gas prices to increase exponentially in particular.

Thus, the so-called inflation core rose from 5.4% in January to 5.6% in February. Among the main economies of the Euro zone, Germany experienced a year-on-year inflation rate of 9.3% in February, while in Spain it was 6.1%. France, in turn, exhibited 7.2% and Italy 9.9%.

The Baltic countries continue to have the highest inflation rates in the euro area: Latvia experienced 20.1%, Estonia 18.8% and Lithuania 17.2%.

 

https://www.semana.com/economia/macroeconomia/articulo/la-inflacion-tampoco-da-tregua-en-europa-y-sigue-apretando-la-economia-del-mundo/202317/