As electricity and natural gas prices soar, inflation rates in European countries using euro have reached double digits, indicating that one of the world's major economies will experience a winter recession because higher prices will weaken consumers' purchasing power.
reported that the European Statistics Office reported on September 30 that the consumer price of euro zone 19 countries in September increased by 210% year-on-year, setting a record high, higher than 9.1% in August. Just a year ago, inflation was only 3.4%.
Euro sculpture data map
report also said that the price increase exceeded market analysts' expectations and is currently at the highest level since the euro was recorded in 1997. Energy prices are the culprit, up 40.8% from a year ago. The prices of food, tobacco and alcohol rose by 11.8% year-on-year.
report pointed out that the steady decline in Russian natural gas supply and the bottleneck in the supply of raw materials and parts have all exacerbated inflation as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 epidemic.
At the same time, the prices of utilities, food and fuel are high, and consumers spend less money on buying other things. That's the main reason economists predict recession will occur at the end of this year and in the first few months next year.
Senior European economist Jessica Heinz, a senior European economist at CITIC International Macroeconomic Consulting, said that the ECB's interest rate setting committee may significantly raise the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points at its next meeting on October 27. (Compiled/Lu Di)
Source: Reference Message Network
