Inflation in the euro area rose by two tenths in August to 9.1 percent year on year, a new record according to preliminary data released this Wednesday by Eurostat, the community statistics office.
While August marked the highest annual inflation so far this year, price growth has kept marching upward. The year began with 5.1 percent in January, followed by 5.9 percent in February, 7.4 percent in March and April, 8.1 percent in May, 8.6 percent in June, and 8.9 percent in July.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and fresh food because of their volatility, stood at 4.3 percent last month, up 0.3 percentage points from July.
Energy continued to be the main driver of price increases in August. The annual energy inflation rate stood at 38.3 percent, though this was lower than July’s 39.6 percent and well below the peak around 44 percent seen in March.
Member States with the highest inflation rates
On the consumer side, prices for processed foods, alcohol and tobacco rose 10.5 percent year on year, compared with 9.4 percent in May. The share of unprocessed food edged down slightly from 11.1 percent in July to 10.9 percent in August.
Non-energy industrial goods prices increased by five tenths, reaching 5.0 percent, while the rise in services prices eased by a tenth to 3.8 percent from the previous month.
The three Baltic states led the way, with Estonia at 25.2 percent, followed by Lithuania at 21.1 percent and Latvia at 20.8 percent, among the euro area partners that posted the highest inflation rates in June.
A group of countries registered double-digit inflation, including the Netherlands at 13.6 percent, Slovakia at 13.3 percent, Slovenia at 11.5 percent, Greece at 11.1 percent, Belgium at 10.5 percent, and Spain at 10.3 percent, according to the harmonized CPI.
Above the euro area average, Cyprus at 9.6 percent, Portugal at 9.4 percent and Austria at 9.2 percent were the notable examples.
Finally, seven euro-area countries posted below-average inflation in August. These were Italy at 9.0 percent, Ireland at 8.9 percent, Germany at 8.8 percent, Luxembourg at 8.6 percent, Finland at 7.6 percent, Malta at 7.1 percent, and France at 7.1 percent.