Euro area facing stubborn price growth  

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Eurozone core inflation rose in June, according to Eurostat data released last week.

According to the data, core consumer prices in the eurozone’s 20 member countries rose 5.5% year on year, up from a preliminary estimate of 5.4% and a reading of 5.3% in May.

Bloomberg polled economists, who predict underlying inflation to outperform overall inflation through the end of 2024.

“We expect sticky core inflation to dominate the debate this summer, pushing the ECB to deliver a final hike to 4% in September.” The tiny upward revision to the core reading to 5.5% exemplifies this conflict,” said Maeva Cousin, senior economist at Bloomberg.

Despite the fact that headline consumer price increase in the Eurozone has been cut in half since its top of 10.6% in October 2022, economists are generally expecting the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise interest rates again following June’s stubbornly high inflation.

On June 15, the European Central Bank (ECB), which is due to convene for another rate hike next week, boosted interest rates to their highest level in 22 years. The regulator raised the benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4% for the eighth time in a row.