The eurozone inflation rate accelerated to 2.4% in December and marks its highest level since the summer

MADRID Jan. 7 (EUROPE PRESS) –

The inflation rate in the euro zone rose in December to 2.4% year-on-year, two tenths above the previous month’s reading, which represents the largest increase in prices since last July, according to the preliminary reading of the data published by Eurostat.

In this way, the year-on-year inflation rate in the eurozone has accelerated for the third consecutive month.

The rise in prices in December reflected a 0.1% increase in the cost of energy, the first increase since July, when the previous month had registered a year-on-year decrease of 2%.

In turn, the price of fresh food increased 1.7% year-on-year in December, below the 2.3% increase in the previous month, while the cost of non-energy industrial goods increased 0.5% year-on-year , one tenth less than the increase observed in November.

In the case of the cost of services in the euro zone, an interannual increase of 4% was observed in December, one tenth greater than the increase corresponding to November.

Without taking into account the impact of energy, the euro zone inflation rate remained stable at 2.7%, while also excluding the effect of fresh food prices, as well as alcohol and tobacco , the core inflation rate also remained at 2.7%.

Among euro countries, the biggest year-on-year price increases in December were in Croatia (4.5%), Belgium (4.4%) and Estonia (4.1%). In contrast, the smallest increases were observed in Ireland (1%), Italy (1.4%) and Luxembourg (1.6%).

In the case of Spain, the rise in prices in December accelerated to 2.8% from 2.4% the previous month, thus placing it four tenths above the euro zone average.